[Susan Foreman]

Poundland Forced To Withdraw Ouija Boards From Stores After Backlash / Tyla

"For those of you who dabble in the dark arts or if you were thinking of snatching a cheap Ouija Board this Halloween, you may have to find an alternative.

Poundland has been forced to remove its collection of Ouija Boards from four of the 33 stores that had been selling them in Northern Ireland and "around 40" stores in England.

According to a spokesperson representing Poundland, the boards - which the company refer to by their alternate name, "spirit boards" - were sold in a small number of stores. "Four in Northern Ireland, around 40 in England as part of the Halloween décor range but they vanished pretty quickly after they went on sale last month. They were a limited buy and haven't been in stock since the beginning of October."

The spokesperson explained that the Ouija Boards were intended to be a one-off limited buy for a very limited number of stores. "They [Ouija Boards] were marked for adults only and when available flagged at the checkouts with an age restriction."

Backlash came from paranormal investigators who believe Ouija Boards are not toys and should not be available for untrained adults to buy. Paul Masters, a member of True Paranormal Events UK spoke to LADbible earlier this month after spotting a Ouija Board on sale in a Poundland store in Hull.

"It does not matter if they are plastic or wood, if the planchette spells the word 'Zeus' it is a demon trying to come through and you should not even say the name, never mind continuing to communicate with it," he said.

Ouija Boards have been an object of fascination for many years. The word "Ouija" is officially trademarked by the toy company Hasbro which is why Poundland marketed their version as "spirit boards". In 2014 an entire Hollywood horror film based around a Ouija Board - aptly named Ouija - was released by Universal Pictures and became a commercial success, which led to a prequel two years later.

The flat, normally wooden, board are usually marked with the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0-9, the words "yes" and "no" along with symbols and graphics. Participants use a planchette - a small piece of plastic or wood - to spell out messages from a spirit during a séance.

Not even the spirits on the other side saw this coming."