THE ghostly goings-on at what used to be the Worcester Royal Infirmary have attracted hundreds of people to sign up for a charity ghost walk around the city's old hospital.

The spooky event at what is now the University of Worcester's city campus was the brainchild of five business management students as part of a business challenge for their course.

They had heard tales about how cleaners and security guards had seen ghostly figures and heard moans and screams and decided to turn them into a ghost walk to raise money for Fort Royal Primary School.

But they were shocked when their idea took off and they ended up with 10 times more people interested in the event than they were expecting.

More than 500 people said they were interested in going on the walk after the group publicised it on social media site Facebook and the 220 tickets allocated for a series of tours sold out within hours.

The ghost walk will go ahead with regular tours running between 6pm and 10pm on Saturday, March 4, at the campus in Infirmary Walk, and the students are hoping to raise £1,400 for the school.

Student Ben Walsh, aged 18, who helped organise the event, said: "We were speaking to our lecturer about holding a ghost walk.

"She said it was a great idea and there had been lots of security guards and cleaners who have seen things.

"We completely underestimated the popularity of the event.

"We thought about 50 or 60 might come but we've had more than 500 people show interest.

"We've had an overwhelming amount of interest. Lots of people who used to work in the building also wanted to have a look around and see how much has changed."

Mr Walsh and other students James Mudie, Jacob Howard, Michal Juras and Paige Harrison have created a script based on some of the spooky sightings.

Mr Walsh and Mr Howard will don doctor's jackets to run the tours and have invested in lanterns to help create a spooky atmosphere.

"The tours will be in the chapel and along the lower ground floor of the city campus building where apparently there used to be a morgue and a lot of the ghosts have been seen," Mr Walsh said.

"The story is that there used to be a tunnel connecting the building to a prison that was on what is now a car park and the prisoners would walk through to the infirmary.

"There are some steps leading down which will be part of the tour."

Anyone interested in the event can search on facebook for Ghost Walk at Haunted UOW city campus.

Ghostly sightings

The boy in the cell

Moans and screams have been reported by people visiting the lower grounds of the building. The infirmary is rumoured to have been connected to a prison by an underground tunnel and the screams are thought to belong to a young boy who was imprisoned there. The boy is said to have hung himself in a prison cell after being unable to cope with the misery of his living conditions.

The wartime surgeon

Tom Bates the Elder, a surgeon at the infirmary for 31 years, is said to roam the building keeping a watchful eye out. After retirement, Mr Bates is thought to have returned to the infirmary to help treat wounded soldiers during world war one. He died in 1916 after catching influenza but some say his spirit remains at his workplace.

The grey lady

Numerous sightings have been reported of a mysterious lady near to The Jenny Lind Chapel and what is now the city campus entrance and board room. No-one knows who she is but she was seen again during a recent University open day when a cleaner reporting seeing a ghostly figure walk through the closed doors into the 1851 chapel.