Indonesian police criticise vigilante lynchings

Police in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, have called on people to stop taking the law into their own hands, following a series of lynchings of suspected criminals.

In the latest incident, a crowd beat and burned to death five men who, they believed, had robbed passengers on a bus.

Last month four men, also alleged to have been thieves, were burned to death in Bekasi, east of Jakarta.

Correspondents say that what is known as mob justice has been increasing, in response to weakening confidence in the police and military.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service