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Ammon News - Officials warned locals not to touch the creatures as they could be harmful. It is not yet clear where they came from but, within hours, they had vanished into thin air.

This is the hair-raising moment villagers find thousands of worms washing up on a beach.

Residents living in the Ilocos Sur province of the Philippines said the bizarre scene was first spotted by a group of children playing near the water at around 7pm on March 30.

Video shows a swarm of blue and brown creatures wriggling in the shallow water, stretching a few metres along the beach.

Some of them are washed ashore by the waves.

Carl Rebogio, an uncle of one of the kids, said the worms grew in number as the current pushed more of them to the sand.

He said: "We don’t know where they came from but it seemed like the water pushes them to the shore.

"The children found them while playing and called us to inspect. It was the first time this happened in our area."

The worms were estimated to be at least 10inches long and had hundreds of limbs on their body like a millipede.

Carl added that the worms disappeared after three hours and the villagers had no idea where the creatures went.

He said: "We checked again around 10pm and all the worms were gone.

"The water here is not polluted so that may not be the reason."

As the fishermen feared the incident could affect their livelihood, local official Nereo Daproza sought help from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources so they could investigate.

The officer said: "Some of the residents were able to take some of the worms and were given to the agency so they could identify what it is."

The agency has not yet released a result on their findings and in the meantime residents have been warned not to touch the worms in case they are toxic and dangerous.

*Dailystar