NOSY BE, Madagascar: Police in Madagascar made five more arrests yesterday on the tourist island of Nosy Be after a raging mob lynched and burned two Europeans and a local man they accused of killing a boy.
Authorities on the idyllic Indian Ocean island have now arrested 19 people in all, having taken 14 others into custody on Friday and vowing to arrest anyone involved in the lynchings and riots as well as anyone who filmed or photographed the killings.
Heavy security forces deployed on the island yesterday, with officers on foot and in pick-ups patrolling Hell-Ville, its tiny capital, after a tense night during which the government imposed a curfew from 9pm to 4am.
The gory rampage was sparked by the death of an eight-year-old local boy, whose body was found on the popular Ambatoloaka beach a week after he went missing.
By Wednesday reports had begun to circulate that the boy had been kidnapped, causing a mob to storm the gendarme station — convinced that one of the boy’s killers was being held there.
Officers opened fire and two people were killed.
Amid rumours that foreigners were involved, a mob of hundreds got their hands on a Frenchman and a Franco-Italian on Thursday and torched them on Ambatoloaka, a popular beach ringed by bars and hotels.
Pictures and video images taken by residents captured the moment when one of the bodies was burned in front of about 100 people.
AFP
