MALAPATAN, Sarangani Province -- Classes in all levels at the Lun Padidu National High School here were suspended Friday after about 80 students reportedly got possessed by evil spirits, officials said.

Norma Rendon, Lun Padidu principal, said it was not the first time that evil spirits possessed students in the school.

"Evil spirits have been haunting the school for a long time now. The violent and epileptic-like reactions showed by the victims were indications that indeed there's an evil spirit here," she said.

Rendon said the latest incident took place on Friday when a religious group arrived at the school "purposely to conduct a prayer as for several occasions in the past many students had already been oppressed by some bad spirits."

She said the group, led by Pastor Jun Aracan from the nearby town of Alabel, arrived at the school around 7 a.m.

Rendon said while Aracan's group was praying, a female student suddenly began to act violently.

She said as Aracan's group was praying over the student, others also went into uncontrollable frenzy and shouted violently. Others crawled under their desks and spoke of five angry dwarves haunting them.

Rendon said a total of 80 students showed signs of being possessed and were also prayed over by the religious group.

"This prompted some parents to fetch their children from the school before the classes in all levels were suspended," she said.

Noel Caberoy, the school's planning officer, told reporters the phenomenon occurred anew after school authorities had the trees and a clump of bamboos at the back of the school cut a few days ago.

Sought for comment, Father Romeo Catedral, action officer of the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Marbel, said, "There, indeed, is biblical basis for incidents involving persons possessed by evil spirits."

But Catedral clarified he was not saying the reported occurrence at the Lun Padidu school was true and that psychologists also have "some explanation about such a phenomenon."

"The Church today is very careful in concluding when it comes to that," he said.