Saudi Ghost-Hunters Raid "Haunted" Hospital

Reuters ^ | Wed May 30, 2012

[nickcarraway]

The dingy corridors and gloomy wards of a long-abandoned Saudi Arabian hospital have drawn hundreds of amateur ghost hunters who believe it to be haunted by jinn, the malevolent spirits of the Koran and Arabian mythology.

The macabre fascination with Riyadh's Irqa Hospital, which treated Gulf War combatants in 1991, began with tweeted rumours and escalated to the point where hundreds of youths broke into the grounds, smashing windows and starting fires.

"Teenagers sent text messages calling for an operation against some of the jinn who live in the hospital, and they broke into the hospital and smashed its facilities and burned 60 percent of it," Okaz newspaper reported last week.

The rampage prompted angry press complaints the authorities were allowing the building to fall into disrepair.

Several films have since been posted on YouTube showing grinning young men exploring the building's deserted rooms in search of evidence of spectral activity.

One showed blazing palm trees that had been torched by the ghost hunters.

Jinn fever reached the point where the Health Ministry issued a terse statement on Monday disclaiming responsibility for the decaying building, which it said was privately owned and too decrepit to be revived as a working hospital.

[SampleMan]

Ah the ole jinns (Genies).

For those that don't know, think of jinns as islamic leprechauns. They can be good or bad, but generally serve the purpose of being the bad guy when someone needs to save face and no other plausible explanation is plausible.

[JerseyDvl]

Ghosthunters my arse. Vandals and arsonists is more like it.

[Amberdawn]

In other words, Saudi’s are majical thinkers. Who would have guessed?

[SunkenCiv]

All hospitals are haunted, duh, people die there. Thanks nickcarraway.