Alleged witch burned alive in Papua New Guinea

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea - Police say a woman accused of witchcraft has been burned alive in front of hundreds of witnesses in a Papua New Guinea town.

The brutal slaying of the 20-year-old mother on Wednesday has been condemned by the nation's prime minister and diplomatic observers.

Police spokesman Dominic Kakas said Friday she was stripped naked by several assailants, tortured with a hot iron rod, bound, doused in gasoline, then set alight on a pile of car tires and trash in the Western Highlands provincial capital of Mount Hagen. Grisly photographs were published in local newspapers.

Kakas says she was accused of sorcery by relatives of a 6-year-old boy who died in the local hospital the day before.

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