A furious mob in Mexico has brutally beaten a woman to death and attacked two men after the trio were suspected of killing of an eight-year-old girl.
The incensed crowd swarmed around the group they believed were behind a financial kidnapping, following reports that the family of the youngster received anonymous telephone calls demanding a ransom.
The little girl disappeared on Wednesday from the town of Taxco, Guerrero state, and her body was found by the side of a road in the early hours of Thursday.
Local media reports security camera footage appeared to show a woman and a man loading a bundle, which may have been the girl’s body, into a taxi.
People surrounded the woman’s house Thursday, threatening to drag her out before police intervened and put on the back of a pick up truck.
However, despite officers being present the large crowd dragged her out of the vehicle and into the street where they stomped, kicked and pummeled her until she lay, partly stripped and motionless. Authorities later confirmed the woman had died in the attack.
Speaking about the lynching, a member of the crowd told local media: “This is the result of the bad government we have.
“This isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened (the kidnapping of people for ransom), but this is the first time the people have done something. We are fed up, this time it was an eight-year-old girl.”
The child has been named locally as Camila Gomez, whose family held a funeral and procession in her memory on Good Friday.
The mayor of Taxco, Mario Figueroa, said he shared residents’ outrage over the killing of Camila Gomez. Mr Figueroa said the three people beaten by the mob, the woman and two men, had been taken away by police.
The state prosecutors’ office said the two men were hospitalised. There was no immediate information on their condition.
In a statement issued soon after the event, Mr Figueroa complained he did not get any help from the state government for his small, outnumbered municipal police force.
He said: “Unfortunately, up to now we have not received any help or answers.”
The Telegraph reports on Sunday Guerrero state prosecutors said a man and a minor were arrested “for the crime of femicide” along with another man the day before on similar charges. It was not clarified whether the men charged included those attacked by the mob.
