Africans attacked over cannibalism rumours

NEW DELHI: Four Tanzanians and two Nigerians had to be rescued by the police on Thursday after rumours spread in west Delhi’s Dwarka that some Africans had “kidnapped and eaten” a local boy, the police said on Friday. Police investigations revealed the boy reported to be kidnapped had not even gone missing in the first place.

The source of the rumours that spread rapidly n Dwarka on Thursday is yet to be identified, said the police.

A video shot on a mobile phone shows a mob shouting, ‘maaro, maaro (kill, kill)’ even as a policeman is seen shielding a woman of African origin . “Show your face (to the camera),” another man shouts to the woman, who is frightened. The video also shows a middle-aged man screaming that the Africans had killed and eaten a teenage boy.

The police whisked away the six foreigners to the local police station without any of them suffering any injuries, Anto Alphonse, deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka), said. Although a large crowd had surrounded some of them, the foreigners had not complained of any kind of physical assault, he said.

“We are likely to register a case of wrongful restrain in this case. We reacted swiftly to rescue them,” said Madhup Tewari, joint commissioner of police (western range), urging people not to believe such rumours.

Police took preventive measures by deploying nearly two dozen police personnel near the homes of Africans in and around Kakrola village, where the incident took place.

The rumours began around 6.30 pm on Thursday. “Local residents began circulating false information that a 16-year-old boy had been kidnapped and eaten by some Africans living in the neighbourhood. The information spread among people in many neighbourhoods in Dwarka and frightened the Africans living there,” said an investigator on condition of anonymity.

By 7 pm, scores of local residents had gathered outside a building occupied by some Africans in Hari Vihar in Kakrola.