Police in Madagascar have made seven more arrests over the lynching of two Europeans and a local man accused of killing and mutilating a young boy on a popular tourist island.



By Sunday, authorities had arrested 26 people after Thursday's violent events on the resort island of Nosy Be, located off the northwest coast of Madagascar.



The situation appeared calm on Sunday, with members of the security forces patrolling the streets.



The rampage was sparked by the gruesome death of an eight-year-old local boy, whose body was found on the popular Ambatoloaka beach a week after he went missing.



A security official said seven people had been arrested early on Sunday in Ambatoloaka and the suburb of Dar-es-Salam where the boy lived.



Mutilated



Vincent Laza, a neighbourhood leader on the island, told the AFP news agency that the boy's body was wet when it was found, suggesting he may have drowned, and that his genitals were missing and his intestines were exposed.





Reports circulated that the boy had been kidnapped, causing a mob to storm the station of the gendarme military force, convinced that one of the boy's killers was being held there.



Officers opened fire and two people were killed.

Amid rumours that foreigners were involved, a mob of hundreds got their hands on a Frenchman and a Franco-Italian on Thursday and lynched them on Ambatoloaka beach.



Pictures and video images taken by residents captured the moment when one of the bodies was burned in front of about 100 people, including a man who was both armed and wearing a uniform.



Afterwards a pile of ash, wood, a torso and a pair of charred legs were the only recognisable signs of the violence.



The boy's uncle was later also killed and burned.



Mob justice



Nosy Be is Madagascar's main tourist magnet, but it also has a seedy underbelly and is known for sex tourism.