Egypt vigilantes lynch 2 alleged thieves

CAIRO -- Egyptian vigilantes beat two men accused of stealing a motorized rickshaw yesterday and then hung them by their feet while some in a watching crowd chanted "kill them!" Both men died, security officials said.

The killings come a week after the attorney general's office encouraged civilians to arrest lawbreakers and hand them over to police. They are emblematic of the chaos sweeping Egypt amid a security breakdown.

It was one of the most extreme cases of vigilantism in two years of sharply deteriorating security following the 2011 uprising. Gruesome photos circulated quickly on Facebook and other social media outlets, with images taken by people in the crowd of thousands who watched and recorded the lynchings. The killings were in the town of Samanod, about 55 miles north of Cairo in the Nile Delta province of Gharbiya.

Mamdouh al-Muneer, spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood group in the Gharbiya governorate, told The Associated Press the lynchings followed a spate of rapes in the area. He said there have been a number of incidents in the past several months of girls being abducted while leaving school.

"Unfortunately, the police are completely out of the picture in Gharbiya. They are not comfortable with their position, with the president or with their role after the uprising," he said. -- AP