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Five "witches" burnt alive in Andhra Pradesh: AFP

Five people were tied to trees and burnt alive following a medieval witch hunt in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, police officials said Thursday.

The burnings took place just after midnight Wednesday in Timmapur village, 200 kilometers northeast of Hyderabad.

The villagers accused the victims of practicing witchcraft and believed they were responsible for the recent deaths of several people in the village.

Police said around 300 villagers dragged five women and one man out of their houses and tied them to trees, before looting a local grocery store for cans of kerosene. One of the women managed to escape after being badly beaten.

The rest were doused with kerosene and burnt alive.

"Everbody has fled the village and there is nobody left to arrest," local police superintendent Vinay Apte told AFP by telephone.

"The villagers will have to come back as they have nowhere else to go and we will definitely be able to make arrests as there have been several eyewitnesses to the murders," Apte said.

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