Bogota - In the classic English Christmas tale by Charles Dickens, the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge receives visits from ghosts from his past and future whose messages change his life.

With just a week to go before the holiday celebration, ghosts have been spied at a city hall in Colombia, according to a radio report from the South American country.

And while the shadowy figures haven't delivered any messages as of yet, city officials in the provincial capital of Armenia, population 350,000, have asked the church for help.

They want priests to read a mass in the haunted building to chase out the creatures, radio broadcaster Caracol reported Wednesday.

City workers have been complaining since early December about unusual encounters that have been scary enough to interrupt their work.

One worker reported seeing an unknown woman in the men's restroom.

"I excused myself, because I thought I had gone in the wrong door. Then she disappeared without a word, through the closed door," he said.

In another case, the watchman said he was followed by a ghost in the underground garage, where he made nightly rounds. The figure pulled on his shirt and whispered in his ear.

He even had photographic proof of strange happenings. One picture showed a car in the garage where a man was sitting who looked eerily like a fire and rescue worker who had died long before, Caracol reported.

The watchman has suspended his nightly patrols. It wasn't clear if he would return on Christmas Eve to get any messages. (dpa)