Karachi: Panic-stricken female workers from a garment factory were treated by doctors at Jinnah Post Medical College after they reported seeing a ghost on the premises.
The doctors tranquillised the women and sent them home after they were brought to the hospital in a hysterical state.
The emergency department of JPMC witnessed chaos on Monday when the women were brought in.
Newspaper reports describing the scene said panic and chaos engulfed the emergency department as everyone started screaming and yelling hysterically.
Staff were lost as to how to treat the uninjured women.
The story they told varied from one worker to another.
“I saw a big black ghost in the washroom. It resembled a shadow but was far bigger than any shadow I have ever seen,” Shaufta Naz, one worker, told paramedics.
Another told staff she saw a woman with her feet turned around, a trait many in South Asia believe represents “Churail” or “the ghost of an evil woman”.
Naz said mysterious sounds, which sounded like a man crying, had been coming from the washroom for several days.
A woman who fainted could only remember her name when her mother arrived to comfort her.
Doctors suggested a poisonous gas leak might have sparked the incident, causing panic and asphyxiation among the women.
However, later they concluded it could only have been a collective panic disorder.
“It was quite weird as nothing could be diagnosed except they might have struck with panic one after another,” Dr Seemi Jamali, the director at JPMC said.
