One dead in Peru after angry mob tries to lynch poll workers
LIMA - One woman was killed and some forty people were arrested in a Peruvian shantytown after an angry mob tried to lynch two poll workers who residents believed were butchering local children to take their organs, a police official said on Friday.
Police General Hugo Begazo said false rumors on social media claiming dead children had been found with their organs missing fanned mass hysteria in the shantytown Huaycan on the outskirts of Lima, prompting residents to target two employees of a polling company who had been conducting door-to-door marketing surveys.
Police managed to pry the poll workers unharmed from the mob, which then attacked the police station in Huaycan where they were being held for protection, Begazo said.
Police are investigating the death of a Huaycan woman who died from a bullet wound following the unrest, Begazo said.
