GUATEMALA CITY -- A fifth suspected kidnapper has been lynched by angry residents in the western Guatemalan town of San Pedro Soloma, authorities said Friday.

A day after four accused abductors were beaten, stoned and shot to death, their putative accomplice was pummeled and beheaded on Thursday, police said.

The five people were identified by Soloma residents as members of a kidnapping gang.

Investigators say the incidents began after the freeing of a man who had been kidnapped and for whom his family paid a ransom of more than $7,800.

The victim, who was not identified, asked local residents for help after being released, and more than 1,500 people took part in the capture and subsequent lynching of the abductors, the police said.

According to the representative of the national ombudsman's office in Huehuetenango province, Erick Villatoro, Soloma residents did not allow authorities onto the soccer field where the lynching of the five took place.

Human rights activists have documented more than 100 instances of vigilante justice in Guatemala this year. Observers attribute the phenomenon to a scarcity of police in rural areas and to the population's lack of confidence in the justice system.

The more than 5,400 homicides reported so far this year in Guatemala is roughly equal to the number of murders in neighboring Mexico, which has more than 100 million inhabitants and is the scene of open war among rival drug cartels.