A group of teenagers collapsed after using a Ouija board at a school in Colombia, with five taken to hospital, according to reports.
Teachers at the Agricultural Technical Institute in Hato are said to have found 11 students, aged 13 to 17, passed out in a corridor.
The teenagers were suffering from violent vomiting, abdominal pain and muscle spasms. While most were treated at a health centre nearby, five were taken to the Manuela Beltrán Hospital.
After receiving treatment, doctors said in medical reports that the teenagers suffered from food poisoning. The rectory of the school is waiting to confirm the exact details surrounding the incident with authorities before ruling on the case.
Jose Pablo Toloza Rondón, the mayor of Hato said: “The children were passed out, at the time they were found they were short of breath and thick drool was coming out of their mouths.
“It is not ruled out that it was the Ouija board, that is part of the investigation.
“Others say that they consumed water from a container, others that they came from a pool and had been given something to eat.”
It was later found, after the students were interviewed, that they had drank water from the same glass.
The children were reportedly playing with a Ouija board – a game board with letters, numbers, the words yes, no, hello and goodbye, as well as other symbols.
The boards can allegedly be used to contact the dead, whose “spirits” will move the planchette – a heart-shaped piece of wood or plastic – around the board to spell out answers to the questions players ask.
Users place their hands on the planchette and ask any present spirits to answer their questions by moving the planchette around the board to spell out their response.
Juan Pablo Vargas Noguera, emergency medical coordinator at Hospital del Socorro, said: “We went to El Hato and we found 11 patients between 13 and 17 years old with vomiting, abdominal pain, and muscle spasms.
“We did not find psychological alteration in the children, taking into account that it was said that it would have been from playing the Ouija board. The medical report says it was due to food poisoning.”
