MAPUTO, Serious rioting broke out last Friday after two people were lynched in the Zongoene administrative post in the southern Mozambican province of Gaza, according to media reports here Tuesday.
The disturbances began when a crowd seized three suspected thieves and lynched two of them. The third was rescued by the police.
As in previous cases where mobs have taken the law into their own hands, the killers defended their actions on the grounds that the police do not defend them against criminals.
Hoping to seize and kill their third victim, the mob marched on the Zonguene police station. According to the spokesperson for the police General Command, Inacio Dina, the crowd vandalised the police station and the offices of the administrative post.
They burnt down five houses, three of them owned by the suspected thieves. The other two belonged to the head of the administrative post and to one of his staff.
Dina said the rioters also set two police vehicles on fire, and wrecked two informal market stalls belonging to the alleged thieves.
Police reinforcements were sent to Zonguene, and the situation was brought under control.
Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK