The police said a man has been arrested for thrashing the two men in Chennai
Two men were thrashed by a group of people in Chennai over rumours that they were trying to kidnap a child. The attack comes amid a wave of mob lynching over WhatsApp rumours of child kidnappers on the prowl in some states.
A man has been arrested and the police are searching for another accused, who was seen in a video of the incident.
The police said the two men who were attacked are migrant labourers who have been working on contract with Chennai Metro.
A similar incident was reported from Maharashtra's Dhule today, when five people suspected of being child kidnappers were killed by villagers in Maharashtra's Dhule today,
The five, along with a few others, were seen getting off a state transport bus in the tribal Rainpada village, about 140 km from Dhule town.
When one of them reportedly tried to speak to a child, villagers, who were around for the weekly Sunday market, suspected him to be a kidnapper and began to thrash him, the police said.
Soon others joined them and five persons were killed in mob violence, police said. According to reports, two men from the group of seven managed to escape. The police are trying to get more details.
The men who were killed were reportedly from Solapur district of Maharashtra. It's still not clear why the men had come to Rainpada.
Fifteen people have been taken into custody in connection with the incident, police said.
Last month, two men were lynched by a mob at a village in Assam over WhatsApp rumours that child kidnappers were in the area.