A ritual performed by a local witch doctor in a northern Malaysian village sparked rumors that space aliens had been buried in the neighborhood cemetery. However, the rumors were quashed Sunday when the witch doctor himself revealed the truth to the authorities.

The New Straits Times newspaper reports that a group of four people, comprising a man in his 50s, a woman and two youths, buried six unidentified bodies in a single grave. When the grave digger inquired about the bodies, the old man in the group told him that they were aliens.

The word spread and police stepped in; authorities arrested the witch doctor who had ordered the burial.

Officials now say though that the strange looking, child-sized, headless, covered bodies buried in a single deep grave were not extra terrestrials, but were banana tree trunks that were buried on orders from the witch doctor as part of a medicinal ritual.

Police had earlier said that they would dig up the grave to ascertain what had been buried.