An elderly woman was killed and four others were severely injured in an attack by villagers in Tamil Nadu's Thiruvannamalai district who suspected them to be child kidnappers, police said.
Rukmani (65), Venkatesan, Mohan Kumar, Chandrasekaran -- the last two are from Malaysia -- had come in a car to pray at a temple in the district. The car was driven by Gajendran.
Thiruvannamalai is around 200 km from here.
The group stopped at Athimore village and enquired with a local about the route to the temple. Meanwhile, Rukmani gave some sweets to children who were playing nearby.
With rumours of child kidnappers offering sweets to kids circulating in the social media, the villager got suspicious and shouted for help.
The car was stopped by a large crowd and attacked. The crowd did not heed to the pleadings by the five that they were innocent and not child kidnappers.
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Rukmani lost her life in the attack while the other four were severely injured.
--IANS
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