Swedish students spooked by text threats

GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- A school principal in the Gothenburg, Sweden, area said young students are being frightened by threatening chain-text messages.

Principal Ata Ala of the Nytorp School said fourth-graders at the school have reported receiving chain text messages on their cell phones with threatening content, The Local reported Monday.

"In 1984 a 4-year-old girl was murdered. She was strangled by her stepfather. If you don't send this to 10 people within 30 minutes she will come and sit on the edge of your bed and stare at you with her dark eyes full of sorrow. And on the 13th night she will strangle you slowly to death. Sleep well," one of the chain messages reads.

Ala said it is "clearly over the line" to send such messages to children.

"Children take this sort of thing seriously. At their age, it's not always easy to know what's real," he said.

The principal said he has been in touch with police about the messages but he said he was told that officers cannot intervene unless there is a real threat involved.

"If someone is scared and thinks it's uncomfortable it can be considered a threat and that can be reported. Then it's a question of what the police can do, and who has sent the original message," Gothenburg police spokesman Thomas Fuxborg said.