Taipei  - Taiwan police are investigating the mysterious deaths of three Thai workers in their sleep but suspect they died from eating raw meat rather than being possessed by ghosts, as their fellow workers fear, a newspaper said Wednesday.

The three male workers died in the past month, causing fear among their fellow 400 Thai workers in the Tong Yang Group in Tainan City in southern Taiwan, some of whom suspect the trio were possessed by ghosts, the United Daily News reported.

The workers, aged 27, 40 and 37, died in the early hours of April 21, May 7 and May 25. The first two died in their sleep and the third made gasping sounds in his sleep and was rushed to hospital where he died.

Autopsies showed no obvious causes of their deaths, but police said they suspected they died from trichinosis, caused by eating raw or undercooked meat of pigs or other animals infected with the larvae of a parasitic worm. The disease is common in Thailand, where people often eat raw pork, pig liver or fish.

Local government labor officials said, however, that they suspected they died from inherited diseases or from overwork.

Panic among Thai Tong Yang Group workers prompted the company to call in Thai Buddhist monks to exorcise ghosts from the workers' dormitory, but several Thais, too frightened to continue living there, have terminated their contracts and returned to Thailand.

There have been reports of Thai workers dying in their sleep in other countries. The suspected causes include overwork and eating raw pork or glutinous rice cooked in plastic pipes, a substitute for cooking glutinous rice in bamboo as it is done in Thailand.

The initial symptoms of trichinosis include nausea and diarrhoea, but after the worms are released into the body, symptoms can range from headache, fever, chills, coughing, eye swelling, and joint and muscle pain to severe neurological problems, including respiratory paralysis, and even death. (dpa)