A vigilante mob in Guatemala took deadly revenge against a man who authorities said killed two children at a primary school.
Interior minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla said a drunken Julio Saquil entered the school in the northern province of Alta Verapaz yesterday and slit the throats of two children with a machete.
Mr Bonilla said a mob then set the 35-year-old man on fire on the school's patio and he burned to death.
'He walked into to one of the classrooms and assaulted the students, completely beheading a 13-year-old boy and slitting the throat of an 8-year-old girl with a machete,' Tactic firefighter Wilson Cahuec said.
Local security officials said the dead man had a history of drug problems and violence, but they have not yet identified a motive for the attack.
Fox News have reported that the mob was made up of teachers and local residents.
They have also said Authorities identified the slain students as Evelyn Yanisa Saquij Bin, 8, and Juan Armando Coy Cal, 13.
The official said the bodies of the children had defensive wounds. Lynch mobs are not uncommon in areas of Guatemala where police are scarce.
The country's human rights agency says 234 attempted lynchings took place in 2011 and at least 40 people were killed.
Following the horrific acts of violence, tensions were running high around the local neighbourhoods, who began to dish out their own 'mob rule' punishments.
Four men suspected of thieving were captured and beaten by angry residents who obviously felt that their own methods of punishment were more suitable to the law enforcers'.
Thankfully, for the men at least, they were rescued by the police and arrested, but only after they had been tied up, hit with sticks, punched and kicked.
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