KOTA BHARU: 39 students were overtaken by bouts of hysteria during a school assembly session at 7.30am today.
The incident took place at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Ketereh, here, which later saw five teachers affected, turning the school into what can only be described as eerie.
School principal Norriha Abd Rahman when met said the incident started when the students were gathered at the school's open air hall for assembly.
The students and teachers had just finished reciting verses from the Quran when a Form 2 female student began screaming. It then became 'contagious' and a few other students started to scream as well.
Norriha informed that today's incident appeared to be a continuation from a hysteria episode that happened at the school yesterday involving four students.
She said the same students involved yesterday were also the same ones affected by histeria today, although this time around, more students became 'affected' as well.
The students affected were those from Form 1 to Form 6, Norriha said.
The episode today lasted for some 40 minutes before the students were treated by members of the Darul Syifa centre as directed by the state education department (JPN).
The treated students were then allowed to go home.
"Due to safety reasons and directive from JPN, the school session today ended earlier at 11am with all students allowed to go home," she said.
Meanwhile, reporters then witnessed what appeared to be a continuation of the hysteria episode when several teachers started screaming at about 1pm.
The teachers screamed and began crying before they were treated with Quranic verses by Kelantan Darul Syifa director Ustaz Zaki Ya.
Zaki informed that he came to the school after he was contacted by JPN and found the situation to be chaotic when the students affected were screaming and acting aggresively.
"I was assisted by four ustaz from Darul Syifa and we treated the students before allowing them to go home.
"Usually mass hysteria is caused by disturbances from unseen beings," he said.
It is learnt that the school will conduct special prayers (solat hajat) and recitation of the Yassin tonight, following what happened.