Fourteen police injured in Peru in clashes with lynch mob

Fourteen Peruvian police officers were injured Sunday in clashes with stick-wielding and rock-throwing villagers trying to lynch a man suspected of assaulting and killing two young girls, the Interior Ministry said.

The violence unfolded outside a police station in the town of Andahuaylas in the southeast of the country.

The hundreds-strong mob was trying to get at a 23-year-old man identified as Maicol Oscco, who was arrested overnight in connection with the assault and murder of two girls, aged 10 and 11, who were reported missing last week.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd on Sunday.

The Interior Ministry issued a statement urging people not to try to take justice into their own hands.

Colonel Alejandro Castillo, a regional police chief, told reporters that Oscco confessed to killing the girls.

Security in the area will be beefed up with 100 additional police officers, Castillo added.

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