The Muhnochwa

In 2002 a rumoured face-scratching prowler caused panic in northern India. Doctors called it mass hysteria, and riots and lynchings followed.

In 2002 Dawn reported panic in Uttar Pradesh, in northern India, over rumours about a prowler who attacked people and scratched their faces. People hurried indoors at sunset. Outside calls the intruder the Muhnochwa, or Face Scratcher.

Outside magazine reports that nobody could identify the Face Scratcher, though a video is said to show people fleeing a beam of light that spun over darkened streets. It cites The Times of India reporting that a team looking into one incident kept open the possibility of a body from outer space with electromagnetic effects. News24 reported that local doctors dismissed it as mass hysteria, saying panicked villagers had inflicted most of the injuries on themselves, and that the episode recalled the monkey man panic in Delhi the year before.