Case file · High strangeness
The penis-snatching panic of Kinshasa
In April 2008 police in Kinshasa arrested more than a dozen people accused of using sorcery to steal or shrink men's genitals with a touch, after crowds tried to lynch them.
2008 CE · -4.33, 15.32 · status: explained
The account
Such scares have swept West and Central Africa since the 1970s. Victims said they felt a shock after being touched in a crowd and that their organ had vanished. Police said they made arrests partly to protect the accused from mobs.
The sceptical view
A culture-bound panic related to koro; doctors who examined the accusers found nothing missing.