GUATEMALA CITY -- Outraged residents of a poor neighborhood on the west side of this capital killed one of two assailants who shot five youths on the street, Guatemalan police said Wednesday.

They said the incident began when two individuals armed with automatic pistols walked up to a group of young men talking on a street corner and - without saying a word - opened fire, killing one of the youths and leaving four others badly wounded.

One of the shooters, identified as Diego Mendez, 19, tripped while attempting to flee, which gave bystanders the chance to seize him. They beat the assailant with sticks and stones before dousing his body with gasoline and setting him on fire.

"It was impossible to avert the deed (the lynching), since the enraged residents prevented our entry," a police spokesman said.

On Jan. 11, inhabitants of an Indian community in northwestern Guatemala killed and burned three people accused of kidnapping a mother and daughter.

Human rights activists documented more than 100 instances of vigilante justice in Guatemala last 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 last year in Guatemala - a nation of approximately 13 million - was nearly 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. EFE