A woman suspected of being a witch was beaten by a mob and died last week in Guarujá, Brazil, near the country's largest city, São Paulo. The attack was prompted by suspicions the woman was involved in a kidnapping in the area, following a Facebook post by a local news outlet, according to a report from Folha de São Paulo, the country's largest newspaper.

"Housewife Fabiane Maria de Jesus, 33, died last Monday (May 5) after being beaten by a group of people from Guarujá two days before," the report said. "The lynching ... was motivated by suspicion that Fabiane was connected to child abductions in the region thought to be linked to black magic rituals. According to Military Police, however, there is no indication that she had committed such a crime."

A video of the brutal attack shows a crowd gathered around the bound and unconscious woman. An attacker grabs de Jesus by her hair and slams her head into the ground. Then, another person on a bicycle ties one of her hands with a rope and drags her as the crowd cheers and throws trash at the dying woman. Police are investigating, and several people have been arrested in connection with the incident.

According to the Folha de São Paulo report, the attack was sparked by a warning shared through social media. The newspaper reported that the Facebook page for a local tabloid-style news outlet spread an alert claiming that a woman had been seen abducting children, and many believed her motivation was witchcraft. A sketch of the woman the news outlet claimed was a child abductor was included with the alert, and resembled the victim. Administrators for the Facebook page have since released a statement denying responsibility for the attack and stating that the page had merely passed along the unfounded rumors as a public service and never claimed the child-abduction rumor was true.