Chinese villagers beat dog thieves for NINE hours, tie the dead animals' bodies around their necks before attacking police officers sent in to rescue the crooks

Chinese villagers beat dog thieves for NINE hours, tie the dead animals' bodies around their necks before attacking police officers sent in to rescue the crooks

This is what happens to dog thieves in China.  

Punishment: The thieves were tied up with the animals rear ends pointing towards their faces

Incredibly the villagers then turned on police officers who had been sent to rescue the thieves attacking them with metal bars and smashing up their patrol car

The other thief is seen slumped against a car surrounded by villagers. The pair were reportedly subjected to a brutal nine hour beating

Two men who were caught killing and stealing dogs in a Chinese village were subjected to a brutal nine hour beating before having the dead animals' bodies tied around their necks.

Incredibly the villagers then turned on police officers who had been sent to rescue the thieves attacking them with metal bars and smashing up their patrol car, People's Daily Online reported.

The other thief is seen slumped against a car surrounded by villagers. The pair were reportedly subjected to a brutal nine hour beating

The drama began at around 7am on Tuesday in Shaping village, Yizhang County, Hunan Province when the thieves were caught red-handed with two dead animals they are believed to have killed for meat.

An angry mob soon gathered and quickly took matter into their own hands, delivering a brutal beating before tying the animals around the thieves' necks with the dogs' rears pointing towards their noses.

Police arrived at the scene to find a large number of villagers still attacking the thieves so they rushed forward to stop the beating pointing out that mob justice was simply unacceptable.

Incredibly the villagers then turned on police officers who had been sent to rescue the thieves attacking them with metal bars and smashing up their patrol car

But when officers were about to take the two suspects back to the station the villagers stopped them demanding 1 million Yuan (£106,000) compensation otherwise the two would not be released.

At around 4pm the villagers started to attack the police with metal bars and rocks smashing the windscreen of the police car.

Rocks were rolled into the road and some villagers even lay down underneath the police vehicle to prevent the thieves, who had suffered serious injuries in the attack, from being driven off.

In order to prevent the situation from worsening the police tried to calm the villagers down by repeating that mob justice was against the law but this was met with a barrage of verbal abuse. 

Punishment: The thieves were tied up with the animals rear ends pointing towards their faces 

It wasn't until 6pm that authorities from the local Public Security Bureau as well as Yizhang County officials arrived at the village and finally manged to calm down the situation.

Yizhang Public Security Bureau stated that their officers had been going about their work in the correct manner when they were attacked. 

They added that the police officers had shown restraint when the villagers resorted to violence and that several of the villagers were guilty of illegal imprisonment, assault and obstructing police work.

The two suspects are now under police custody and the case is being investigated.