Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – A member of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) and a police informant were confirmed to have died in a mob killing in Deli Serdang regency, North Sumatra on Sunday evening.

The victims were identified as Ricardo Jefri Sitorus, 24, and Christian Marko Siregar, 24, both residents of Jalan Perkutut Medan, 24. The police said Ricardo was a BIN member while Christian was a police informant.

Both were set on fire by a mob on Sunday at 11 p.m., their bodies were later brought to Adam Malik Hospital in Medan for autopsy. The bodies were reported to be in a very bad condition with Christian's body missing two legs while Ricardo was burned all over.

Based on police information, Christian and Ricardo were at Lau Bekri village, Kutalimbaru district, Deli Serdang regency to raid a gambling den. They came in a team with a police brigadier and another two people who, the police confirmed, were also police informants.

North Sumatra Police spokesperson Heru Prakoso said that information regarding illegal gambling had been sent by a military officer identified as S to the police brigadier identified as AZ. The team was dispatched to raid the house where the gambling was taking place.

"When they arrived at the house, the owner, named Kelana, was inside. Brigadier AZ and his four colleagues tried to apprehend him but Kelana yelled 'thieves!' at them. The residents of the neighborhood came in a mob and chased the team," Heru told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Their car was stopped and blockaded by dozens of motorcycles at Glugur village. The mob surrounded the car but the five remained inside. They got out of the car after the village head arrived at the location.

The village head called the local police, but when police personnel from Kutalimbaru station arrived to bring the five team members to the station, the mob turned violent.

Some of them dragged Ricardo and Christian to the car, Brigadier AZ managed to flee to the police station and the other two fled into the woods. Witnesses said that before being burned, the two victims were severely beaten and pushed under the car. "The mob beat them to death and burned them with their car," Ali, a resident of Kutalimbaru, said.

Police spokesperson Heru said that the police were hunting down Kelana, alleged to be a bookie.

Meanwhile, Christian's family has denied that he was a thief. "They were not thieves. I can't accept that. They were beaten and burned to death," Wilmar, a relative of Christian, said at Adam Malik Hospital. Wilmar said that he did not know that Christian was a police informant. He said Christian worked for a car rental company.

According to data revealed by the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence there were 25 incidents involving mobs in the past year, resulting in two deaths and injures to dozens of people.

Mob killings of police officers have occurred in the past. A policeman in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, was beaten to death in 2009 after having being loudly denounced as a thief by local people. Two more officers were victims in later, separate incidents.