Police say the 22-year-old man was just dropping a kid off at school in Yangon region’s Thanlyin township when everything took a turn for the worse.
“A crowd of around 100 people with rods and stones gathered in front of the school as they heard there are some child thieves,” an officer from a local station told the Voice Weekly.
“They saw this guy and accused him of being a child thief and started beating him while authorities were explaining that no child is missing. Police put the beaten man inside the car and ran away.”
The incident, on January 20, was the latest in a string of violent encounters sparked by rumors of child kidnapping.
The previous assaults took place in Mandalay, where at least two people were killed after being identified as “child thieves.
