SAfrican women burnt to death by spooked students

JOHANNESBURG, Sept 5 (Reuters) Two South African women were burnt to death by a group of students who suspected the victims had bewitched their high school with evil spirits, the South African Press Association reported today.

The 60-year-old women, identified as Mangubane Msaba Zungu and Qibile Thabitha Thusi, were dragged from their homes near Manguzi in KwaZulu-Natal province and taken to a sports field by students from Manhlenga High School, police told SAPA.

There they were doused with petrol and set alight, police said.

Zungu died at the scene and Thusi later in hospital.

Investigators said the murders followed several weeks of strange behaviour by the students, who had complained of inexplicable crying fits and sudden cravings to eat meat during school hours.

''There were apparently a few meetings held by the pupils to discuss the matter. At one of the meetings, it was allegedly suggested that two women may have bewitched the school,'' Capt Jabulani Mdletshe, a police spokesman, told SAPA.

No arrests have been made, Mdletshe said.

REUTERS LPB RK1437