Two people were lynched and a third escaped death in the district of Gurúè, Zambézia, after breaking into a shopkeeper's house in the dead of night, police authorities said. 

According to the local police, the action was carried out by people who noticed the robbery at the shopkeeper's home.

"We had a case of aggravated robbery, in which a gang, made up of three individuals armed with blunt instruments, in the dead of night, went to the home of a local businessman, where they entered the house and stole 14,000 meticais and struck the citizen and his wife," said the police spokesman, quoted by the newspaper "O País".

According to the police, when people found out about it, they captured three of the gang members and lynched and set fire to two of them.

"When the police were notified, two of the three individuals who had been captured by the population had already been killed. We managed to help him when he was about to be lynched."