A “ghost” has kept Battala Girls’ High School shut for two days.

If the students and teachers of the Metiabruz school (picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya) are to be believed, the spirit is of a middle-aged man who hanged himself in a nearby house recently. Classes in a boys’ school on the same premises are, however, being held as usual.

On Monday morning, a Class VIII student of the girls’ section fell off her bench and started groaning. The other students thought that she was “possessed” and ran out of the class. The girls in other classes followed them and left the school. The headmistress declared a holiday soon after.

“I started running after hearing that a ghost was at large in school,” said Class VII student Monisha Parveen.

On Tuesday morning, another girl of Class VIII fell off her bench and started groaning, causing a rerun of the events of the day before. The headmistress again declared the school closed.

“Hundreds of girls ran out of the school on both days. Some of them looked terrified,” said Abdul Rahman, a local shopkeeper.

“The girl who fell from the bench on Monday suffers from hysteria. She is under treatment. I cannot understand why the holidays were declared,” said school secretary Mohammad Ghulam Rasul.