A young man in Malawi suspected of vampirism or blood sucking has been beaten up, set alight and killed by a mob near Blantyre, journalist Lucy Ashton has told the BBC.<\/p>\n
He had been found by a graveyard near a main road outside the city of Blantyre and taken to a police station on Thursday.<\/p>\n
It is likely that he was suffering from a mental illness or epilepsy as he was carrying a health card and may have been returning from hospital, the journalist says.<\/p>\n
A mob who had heard about the “vampire” rumours invaded the police station and dragged him outside.<\/p>\n
His death brings the number of those killed for being suspected \u201cvampires\u201d to eight since September.<\/p>\n
Malawi is a poor country, where 90% of people live in rural areas and education is rudimentary, so the population is suggestible to rumours, Ms Ashton said.<\/p>\n
Clinical psychologist Chiwoza Bandawe, from the University of Malawi, explained further:<\/p>\n
\n\nGiven the fact that we\u2019re conservative and generally superstitious or a culture that believes in mysterious magical explanations for things then people will tend to attribute their difficulty on what they call blood suckers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n\nIt’s almost a symbolic representation of the life, their blood, their hope being drawn out of them, being sucked out of them.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n