News that a group of supposedly haunted Gaff trees on a traffic island will be removed within six months has inundated Dubai Municipality with enquiries from the public. The trees, which are fenced off, are rumoured to surround the unmarked grave of a warrior and camel owner who died in a tribal battle more than 100 years ago.

For decades, groups of Sufi Muslims have visited the site to burn incense and pray, believing their requests to God will be answered. Local residents fear the area, claiming demons lurk there. Questions from panic-stricken residents included enquiries on how the trees will be removed after hearing tales off bouncing axes and mysterious deaths of previous woodcutters.

A Municipality spokesman reviewed the rumours, and allayed fears of retribution at the hands of the undead, adding that plans to remove the Gaff trees were not finalised and that there is every chance they will remain intact.

"The scale of anger that might occur if the trees are cut down is huge because of all the stories surrounding the area," he said. "One of the most recent tales actually came from Municipality workers themselves, who claimed that during a previous landscaping project the driver of the digger that was supposed to up-root the trees died on the spot when he approached them.

"Another tale from construction workers is that a bulldozer became possessed. Apparently every time it went near the trees, it's engine quit, yet when it was moved in any other direction it was fine.

"Everyone has a different tale to tell, with some saying there is a wehli tomb there, which is where holy men are buried - and that the site is blessed - or that it is occupied by ghosts and demons.

"However, the tales from the municipality workers have never been confirmed and we are sure they are just fairy tales." Although the trees were fenced off from the public, this was to protect the trees, not the residents.

"We closed off the area to preserve the trees because they are very old and every time there has been landscaping on the roundabout they have been left untouched. We don't condone the practice of people going in there to worship the dead or the trees because in Islam this is forbidden."

Despite the trees being in the middle of a Dh100 million project to build 10 bridges and an intersection, everything possible would be done to conserve them, he said. A sceptical Municipality worker at the site also pooh-poohed suggestions of doomsday happenings, calling the enquiries "barking mad."

"It's all a load of nonsense," he declared. "The reason the trees have evaded previous felling attempts is that they have extremely hard trunks. "I'm not surprised at all that the bulldozers failed in previous times as they were probably going about the job completely in the wrong way.

It would actually be almost impossible to cut down these trees. They will have to be dug out if the site is cleared."