Three alleged thieves narrowly escaped being lynched by an angry mob in Peru on Monday, but could not avoid the humiliation of being forced to walk stark naked down the cold pre-dawn streets of an Andean city.
Footage that aired on America Television showed police rescuing the nude men from angry taxi drivers bent on stringing them up and setting them on fire in the central city of Huancayo.
The taxi drivers caught the men as they were holding up a colleague at dawn, police said. The cabbies beat the suspects, tore off their clothes, tied their hands and forced them to walk down the street au naturel.
Mob justice is not uncommon in Peru, especially in areas where there is little police presence.