Horrendous images show two dog thieves were brutally beaten by furious Chinese villagers after being caught in action

                        

Justice or pure violence? Two suspected dognapper were savagely beaten by villagers in Gongcheng, Guangxi

Two men who were reportedly caught stealing dogs in a Chinese village last week were subjected to a brutal beating by angry residents, which left one of them dead and the other injured.

Pictures from Chinese online forums show the two suspected dognappers being left shirtless on the side of the road in Lianhua town, Guanxi Province, with their hands tied behind their backs, reported the People's Daily Online.

Nine residents of the village have been called in by the police for interrogation. Three people had surrendered themselves to the police by Monday afternoon for involving in the violence.

                         

Battered and bruised: The brutal beating left one of the two men dead and the other injured on December 13

According to local reports, the Gongcheng Public Security Bureau was informed that a number of men had been caught stealing dogs in the area of Shijiang village and Luodai village around noon on December 13.

Officers were immediately dispatched to the scene. 

When the policemen arrived, they found two men, both battered and bruised, were left lying on the road between the two villages. An ambulance was immediately sent out to the scene.

Images show one of the men lying prone on the ground next to a crossbow, and the other sprinkled in salt by the villagers to increase his agony.

Upon arrival, paramedics were unable to save one of the two men and pronounced his death on site. The other man, who was wounded, was transported to the hospital for treatment. 

The extent of the survivor's injuries are still unclear.

                             

Rescue: Paramedics were were called right after the men were found, but they failed to save one of them

Police have set up a special team to investigate the case, led by the head of the local public security bureau, Wang Hua. 

Residents in the multi-ethnic Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which is located in south China bordering Vietnam, has a traditional of consuming dog meat.

The notorious Yulin dog meat festival in Guangxi, held every year in June, sees as many as 10,000 dogs being skinned alive, butchered and eaten as part of the summer solstice celebration.