Bungay is considered the 'Satanic capital of the UK' according to national reports and 2021 Census data

An idyllic Suffolk town has made national headlines as the 'Satanist capital of the UK'.

According to the Daily Mail, recently released figures from the 2021 census report that about one in 120 people of Bungay's over 8,500 residents identify as Satanists.

This equates to roughly 70 people in the town, or about 100 times above the national average.

Data from the 2021 census shows that 87 people in East Suffolk as a whole refer to themselves as Satanists, with over 5,000 in the entire UK.

The Mail reports the place with the second-highest number of Satanists is Brondesbury in north London.

Bungay Town Council clerk Rosalind Barnett said the news of the town being rated as the Satanist capital of the UK has yet to cross the authority's agenda.

Comments from local leaders suggest it could be a prank, she added.

The town has something of a history with the occult.

St Mary's Church in the town features a sign of a spectral black dog, known as the black shuck, that reportedly visited after the church was struck by lightning on August 4, 1577.

Stuart Pearson-Wright, a local artist who was the instigator of the Black Shuck Festival in Bungay, said he also believed many people referred to themselves as Satanists in the census as a joke.

He said: "It's like how people refer to themselves as 'Jedi' in the census.

"However, it's incredibly interesting that it has come up due to the area's rich history and folklore."

Mr Pearson-Wright noted Suffolk had many supernatural myths, from the Black Shuck to the tale of the green children in Woolpit.

He added: "The story of the black shuck is a bit like a werewolf story, as it was reported that a man transformed into the spectral hound.

"It likely inspired stories including The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle or The Grim in Harry Potter.

"At the time, the visitation was described as being similar to the Devil in likeness, which may be the source of its association with Satanism."