HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Buddhist cleansing ceremony is to be held at the new offices of Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper to calm staff fears that the building may be haunted.

Mysterious stories had been circulating about the paper's 16th floor offices in Quarry Bay on Hong Kong Island since the English-language paper moved there a fortnight ago, the newspaper reported on Saturday.

Some members of staff had even asked to be excused from late shifts after reports of a ghost in the female toilets, it said.

"I heard someone calling my name on my left while I was washing my hands. But there was nobody there when I turned to the left. I was not scared and I simply walked out of the toilet," it quoted an unidentified features' reporter as saying.

It said inquiries by the paper's news team had failed to substantiate any of the increasingly wild stories circulating about the building's past. The paper did not elaborate on the stories.

A Buddhist ritual, which will last about an hour and be carried out by two monks, would be conducted in the offices on Tuesday to pacify any "restless spirits", the newspaper said.

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