Mass hysteria in two schools

ABOUT 70 female students went into hysterical fits during class at SMK Seri Setia in Kuching on Monday, causing the school to close for six days, Harian Metro reported.

Natasha Mohd Alifa, 14, said she scratched her left arm with a piece of glass during the episode.

“I didn’t realise what happened and I felt no pain,” she said.

Another victim, Akilah Mansur, 17, claimed she saw a long-haired figure emerge from the body of her friend, who was being treated by an ustaz.

“I didn’t expect to faint upon seeing the creature,” she said.

“I was told that I was thrashing about for 30 minutes before I was calmed down with Quranic verses.”

A Form Five student, known only as Halim, said when he tried to calm down a friend, he felt a shiver.

“Then, I heard a whisper, instructing me to go to the woods behind the school compound,” he claimed.

The daily also reported another case of mass hysteria at the SMK Tanjung Puteri Resort, Johor, where 50 female students were affected. That school had to close for a day.

Apparently, prior to the incident, a teacher had seen “black figures” in the school canteen.

Some time later, 10 students began screaming and thrashing about, and were taken to the surau.

However, things took a turn for the worse when more students became affected, forcing the school to call in an Islamic medical practitioner to heal them.

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> Popular singer Shila Amzah denied talk that she was dating actor Aman Nassim, adding that they were merely acquaintances.

Sinar Harian reported that the 24-year-old singer found the whole episode “rather strange”.

“I have met him a few times, but always together with our friends. In fact, we have never even taken a photograph together,” she said.

Aman was previously reported as claiming that Shila’s mother Fauziah Sarman asked him to get to know the singer better.

The Asian Wave winner had been in a relationship with actor Sharnaaz Ahmad, which led to a public spat between the latter and Shila’s father, veteran actor ND Lala.

The elder man disagreed with the relationship.

Shila also denied media reports that claimed that she had an income of over RM2.5mil a year.

“It is true that I was offered a contract worth RM5mil when I won the Asian Wave, but the amount is not in cash but in various forms,” she clarified.

“I am paid based on my projects, but the amount is definitely nowhere near as reported,” she added.

The singer is currently planning for her first large-scale concert, which is set for April.

Other News & Views is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this > sign, it denotes a separate news item.