Carved across the wooden floor inside one of the bedrooms is a pentagram - a five-pointed star inside a circle.

The spooky find was posted to Reddit's popular Oddly Terrifying thread and was overwhelmed was responses from concerned viewers.

The original poster wrote: "Pulled up the carpets in newly purchased house to find this."

The symbol can have a range of different meanings, depending on a person's beliefs, their religion and the type of star.

Some believe the inverted pentacle in a circle is the Satanic pentagram used perform black magic or call upon demons.

The thread was jammed with superstitious theories and light-hearted jokes about the presence of the unknown.

One person said: "Dang demons living rent free."

Another said: "Top 10 pranks you could do before you move out."

Someone else warned the couple the image was a protective sigil - a type of symbol used in magic - which traps and wards off evil entities and negative energy.

They said: "It is likely the previous owners of the house (or before them for that matter) knew there was something in the house.

"Removing this would be a mistake. If you do remove it, you should replace it in some way. But do whatever you want - previous owners may have done this as a “joke” without knowing the meaning behind the sigil, and so it may not have been placed there intentionally as there is something in the house."

In a update, the original poster said they had organised sanders to go to the house and take care of it.

They continued: "We’re just going to ignore the smell coming from under the floorboards."

Someone joked: "That's a sign the house is meant to be a rental property."

Another said: "Aww, that was quite the neat pentagram too. I would have just put a single chair with a ventriloquist doll sitting on it in the middle. Keep the visitors guessing."