The timely intervention of a police patrol team from Sekondi saved a sus­pected thief from being lynched by an angry mob at Kansaworado in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metrop­olis last Thursday.

The victim, whose name was given as Paa Kofi, 19, from Kwesimintsim, near Takoradi, was said to have entered a room at Sikaduase, a ham­let in Kansaworado to steal around 12 noon on that fateful day.

However, luck eluded him when a neighbor, who spotted him, raised an alarm which attracted many residents to the scene.

The angry residents, who claimed robbery oper­ations have increased in the community, unleashed their venom on the sus­pect.

The residents purport­edly struck the suspect with clubs, stones and other objects and forced him to drink water from a nearby gutter.

They then put a car tyre around the suspect's neck and poured diesel on him.

They were about to set him on fire when a lady eyewitness, who was sad­dened by his ordeal, called in the police patrol team that rushed to rescue the suspect.

The Assembly member for the area, Mathew Kweku Adams corroborat­ed the story.

According to him, he believed that the incensed residents, many of whom had suffered several rob­bery attacks in recent times, subjected the sus­pect to severe beatings.

Mr Adams mentioned that the residents were bent on lynching him but he was saved by the police personnel that rushed to the scene after they had been alerted.

He indicated that the suspect was receiving treatment at the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospi­tal in Sekondi.