Five people were yesterday lynched by a mob in Maharashtra's Dhule district over suspicion that they were part of a gang of "child lifters", police said. The incident took place at Rainpada, 25 km from Pimpalner in Dhule district, at around 11.30 am, officials said.

The five, along with a few others, were seen getting down from a state transport bus in the tribal-dominated Rainpada hamlet, police said. When one of them apparently tried to speak to a girl child, the villagers, who had gathered for the weekly Sunday market, pounced on them, they said. An official at the Pimpalner police station said that the five people died after being assaulted. Their identities have not been established yet.