Gundlupet: The evening breeze was blowing across the fields, the dogs were barking at a distance, even as a few labourers, mostly tribal women were involved in their daily routine of farm work.

Suddenly, the farm hands had a life-changing experience, as an apparition appeared descended from nowhere and it grew in size. A loud shriek escaped from the mouths of all of them. They were completely rattled with this strange experience.

This was no ghost story that appears in magazines and storybooks. This is what the labourers working in a farm in Gundlupet taluk bordering Bandipur National Park experienced, on Oct.24 around 4 pm.

Four women and two men were working in a farmer’s land in Madduru Colony. Out of the blue, a strange-looking huge creature resembling a human being, red in colour, with a distorted face appeared. The apparition started moving towards the labourers.

“On seeing the creature appearing closer and closer, we ran for our dear lives to the nearby houses and hid ourselves,” said labourers Ratnamma, Seeramma, Lakshmamma and Siddappa.  As a few other farmers saw the apparition, it moved towards the Madduru forest and sat on a nearby tree, then assumed the form of a balloon and flew away, said the labourers.

The women labourers completely shaken by this strange experience refused to come for work yesterday, said Raghavendra, hailing from Kerala, who has taken the farm on contract.

The Forest Department officials, who learnt about this experience, visited the farm and investigated. However, they could find nothing resembling an animal or a humanoid. They have asked the people to inform them if anything like this appears again.

However, the experience has left the villagers completely shaken. The Girijans are scared to go back to work and they are not even allowing their children to venture out.

Meanwhile, rumours are doing the rounds about whether the creatures were aliens that had appeared in flying saucers.

Alien sighting in Periyapatna:  It may be recalled that two years ago, in the month of October, Kanagal village in Periyapatna taluk of Mysuru District was in the limelight, after a few agriculture labourers had reported alien sighting. The women in the village had claimed that a spacecraft had descended close to them and they could spot humanoid figures.

This experience had become a hot topic for discussion among the alien enthusiasts.