A Bolivian man, 17-year-old Santos Ramos, was buried alive by neighbors of a woman he is suspected of having raped near her southern highlands area home.

Ramos was buried alive in the grave of the woman he is alleged to have attacked. According to the Christian Science Monitor, 35-year-old Leandra Arias Janco was attacked Sunday in a Quechua community near the municipality of Colquechaca.

Immediately, villagers suspected Ramos as the culprit and as many as 200 of them attacked and maimed him. On Thursday, many of those same residents convened to block the road to the community, preventing police and prosecutors from reaching it.

A local radio reporter, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, later told The Associated Press that Ramos was tied up at the woman's funeral. Mourners threw him into the open grave, placed the woman's coffin in it and filled the grave with earth.

Colquechaca is a town of 5,000 inhabitants located 207 miles (333 kilometers) southeast of Bolivia's capital, La Paz.

Also in Potosi, residents of the Quechua indigenous community of Tres Cruces on Wednesday stoned to death a suspected thief and burned his accomplice alive, AP reported. Reports indicate the two were suspected of having robbed a car and killed its driver.

Lynchings sometimes occur in rural and poor parts of Bolivia where police and other authorities are scarce.