About 2000 residents from Barout village in Beni Suef, south of Cairo, kidnapped two policemen until early Tuesday, accusing them of killing a resident and placing them under house arrest.
Military police subsequently freed the two policemen, who were given military uniforms to help them sneak out of the house in which they were detained. The two policemen were referred for investigations by the public prosecutor's office in Beni Suef.
A medical examiner was sent to examine the body to determine the cause of death.
The residents accused the two policemen of killing Rabie Quranie Mabrouk, 43, on Sunday and throwing his dead body into the water.
They added that a police force stormed into Mabrouk's home and killed him before dragging his body out of the house and tossing it into a drainage canal.
Meanwhile, security sources denied the residents’ account of the incident and said the security force was on a mission to arrest the man, calling him an "escaped convict."
They said that as soon as Mabrouk learned of the arrival of the police, he darted out of his home and, while being chased by the police, jumped into the water and drowned immediately.
Later on, the village residents gathered and started pelting the security forces with stones, then arrested the two policemen, the source added.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
