Authorities believe residents of a remote community in the mountains of southern Mexico’s Oaxaca state beat five people to death and burned their bodies, the state prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.

Oaxaca state authorities and the National Guard arrived in the community of Llano Amarillo in Santa Maria Texcatitlan on Tuesday, searching for the five missing people. They discovered a burned-out vehicle containing the remains of the five individuals, according to a statement from the Oaxaca state prosecutor’s office on Wednesday.

Officials believe the killings occurred on Monday, but forensic investigators were still working to identify the remains. Preliminary information suggests that the five victims had arrived in the mountain community—located about 125 miles (200 km) from the state capital—on Monday to collect a high-interest loan from a woman, the prosecutor’s office said.

Such vigilante killings occasionally happen in Mexico, especially in remote areas where government presence is limited. For instance, in March, a mob killed and burned a man who worked as a clown after he was accused of abusing a child in another Oaxacan town. Last year, a mob killed a woman accused of involvement in the kidnapping and murder of a girl in Taxco, Guerrero.

A 2019 report from the governmental National Human Rights Commission—the most recent available—stated that these killings represent the most serious expression of public distrust in authorities and the widespread impunity. The study recorded 271 vigilante killings in 2018.

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