8 Aug 2012 10:49 AM EST

-by Alex Mangini, Staff Writer; Image: An exorcism has left a 3-year-old girl dead in Malaysia. (Image Source: Telegraph)

According to local police, a suspected exorcism ritual has left a 3-year-old Malaysian girl dead after her family attempted to remove the evil spirits they claimed possessed her.

District police chief Azman Abdul Lah told the Associated Press that a call from a concerned family member was put into police over the weekend, prompting the officers to raid a home in the country’s northern Penang region.

The young child was found buried beneath a group of seven chanting relatives, in addition to her maid, in a dark room when the police entered.

The girl's parents, grandmother, uncle, aunt, and two cousins were stacked under a blanket on the bed with the helpless 3-year-old suffocating beneath their combined weight.

Azman said that all eight people involved have been taken into custody.