Nigeria: 4 students burned alive on accusations of being thieves

(France 24) Four students from the University of Port Harcourt, in southern Nigeria, were burned alive Friday by locals who accused them of being thieves. A horrific video of the scene has since surfaced online, angering their classmates, some of whom reportedly decided to get revenge by setting fire to the part of town where the young men were killed.

According to the Nigerian press, the four killed students were second-year undergraduates whom local residents in the Aluu neighbourhood of Port Harcourt accused of stealing a laptop computer and a Blackberry phone. A friend of the victims, meanwhile, told the BBC that they had gone to Aluu to try to collect money they were owed, and were mistaken for thieves.

The three-and-a-half minute video, which the police are using as part of their investigation, shows four young men lying on the ground, completely naked, with tyres around their necks. An angry mob beats them with sticks before setting them on fire.

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