This woman howls like a wolf

A Chinese woman says she has been howling like a wolf for 26 years - but can't help it. Hong (42), of Ganzhashan Qian village, Fuzhou,u00a0said, "My howls are like sneezes or yawns, they can't be controlled.

"Sometimes I can't help howling on the streets. Passers-by jump far away staring at me, thinking I am a psycho."She says it all began when she began to suffer from back pains when she was 16: "Then I accidentally found when I howl the pain goes away."

Hong says that when she howls, she feels a "release of gas" inside her, and "can't stop it".

At first she would howl only once every two or three months but now cannot stop herself from howling four or five times a day.

And she says her howls are getting louder and longer. Now she howls for more than 20 minutes at a time with each one lasting up to 20 seconds. Her neighbour, Zhang Yimu, said that when she heard the sound for the first time she thought there were wolves outside.

"Sometimes it's also like an air alarm. Early in the morning or late at night the whole village can hear the howls."

Hong has sought help from a hospital in Fuzhou city. However, except for a protruding spinal disc, she has been given a clean bill of health.