A 26-year-old man accused of stealing a vehicle was burned alive in the main square of a small town in the state of Chiapas, in southern Mexico, a country where mob justice cases are high every year.

The Chiapas State Prosecutor's Office announced the opening of an investigation after the murder of this man Thursday in Santiago El Pinar, where an indigenous community lives.

The man's body was found by authorities with severe burns, the prosecutor's office said.

The case comes a week after five youths, also accused of theft, spent several hours hanging naked from basketball hoops before being rescued in the town of Tsetsal de Huixtan, also in the state of Chiapas.

Mexico experiences hundreds of lynchings or attempted extrajudicial executions each year, including 42 murders and 279 attempts in 2021, according to the NGO Common Cause.

According to experts, the phenomenon is partly due to the widespread perception of impunity in a country plagued by crime.