MEXICO CITY – Police managed to save the lives of four accused kidnappers who were on the verge of being burned alive by some 1,000 angry residents in the central Mexican town of Cuijingo, a local official said.

The four suspects were apprehended by police while trying to kidnap a businessman, but the machete-wielding mob snatched the men away, beat them and doused them with gasoline, according to Gilberto Quiroz, mayor of the municipality of Juchitepec, which includes Cuijingo.

He told Efe the residents agreed to return the men to authorities after police promised to address their concerns about rising crime.

Calm was restored by Tuesday evening, Quiroz said, though acknowledging that some in Cuijingo were still advocating vigilante justice.

The four suspects were disguised as Federal Police officers, the mayor said.

Catholic Bishop Luis Artemio Flores, whose diocese includes Cuijingo, told Radio Formula that the town’s people are “good in general.”

“It is a simple and hardworking community and they feel threatened by criminals,” the prelate said, while insisting that vigilantism “is not the way” to deal with the problem.

Mexicans were shocked five years ago when two plainclothes federal cops mistaken for kidnappers were beaten to death by a mob in the capital in an incident broadcast live on television.

Authorities were able to save a third officer from the crowd. EFE