Mob kills three accused of rape in South Africa

An angry mob in a South African township beat and stabbed three men they accused of raping a young girl, then covered them in petrol and tyres and set them alight, police said yesterday.

A crowd of more than 350 residents confronted the men on Sunday night in the township of Tjokville near Jeffreys Bay, Eastern Cape, accusing them of raping a local girl on Friday, Police Captain Gavin Baker told Reuters.

"They were beaten and stabbed. They basically used petrol and put tyres over the bodies," he said.

"We can't say whether they were alive when they burnt them, or if they were already dead ... The bodies were quite badly charred."

Mr Baker said one man had been arrested and would appear in court today on murder charges. More arrests were expected.

South Africa is fighting one of the world's highest rates of murder, rape and violent crime.

Sunday's incident recalls a bloody period in South Africa's apartheid history when members of the African National Congress - then banned, now in power - killed suspected police informers by hanging tyres round their necks, filling them with petrol and setting them alight.