India, Aug. 17 -- The authorities in Maharashtra's Amravati district are grappling with an unusual crisis after nearly 600 tribal students left a Government-run hostel at a residential school, claiming that a few girls there were possessed.

The episode began after four girls started behaving strangely on July 22, crying and laughing uncontrollably, which officials suspect could be linked to mental stress.

The tribal residential school at Doma village of Chikhaldara taluka in the tribal-dominated Melghat region in northern Maharashtra, over 700 km from Mumbai, houses 810 boys and girls, said officials on Sunday.

Rumour soon spread that the girls were possessed, prompting about 600 students to leave the "haunted" hostel, run by the Triba...