Guyanese village lynches elderly woman accused of being vampire

A crowd of Guyanese villagers lynched an elderly woman they accused of being an evil spirit who drinks the blood of human babies, police said.

Authorities in the South American country said the woman raised suspicions with unusual behavior and was set upon by villagers who apparently believed she was an "Old Higue" — the equivalent of a vampire in the local Obeah religion that blends folk magic and African rituals.

The woman, who has not been identified, was beaten to death and her remains were found on Saturday in a village 15 miles east of Georgetown, police said.

Police have arrested three people and are questioning others, Superintendent Balram Persaud said.

"We are still investigating," he said.

Some expressed surprise at the persistence of belief in Higues, a creature said to take the shape of an old woman who can shrink herself to enter victims' homes through a keyhole.