Two Slovenian men have been taken into custody after a man who was beaten up live on Facebook died from his injuries, authorities said on Wednesday.

The footage showed one of the suspects kicking and punching Andrej Cekuta, 26, even as he lay unconscious on the ground on Monday night, while the other filmed and live-streamed it.

Cekuta was still alive when police found him in the early hours of Tuesday in the eastern village of Podbocje but he succumbed to his wounds in hospital in the afternoon.

Ales Olovec, 20, and Martin Kovac, 29, were arrested at the scene, according to the Slovenske Novice.

Ales Olovec, 20, and Martin Kovac, 29, were arrested on Tuesday after Andrej Cekuta, 26, was beaten up in a Facebook Live stream and later died from his injuries. The footage showed one of the suspects kicking and punching Cekuta even as he lay unconscious on the ground

'The investigating judge ordered the detention of the two suspects after questioning them,' police spokeswoman Alenka Drenik said.

The Dnevnik newspaper reported that police intervened following an anonymous phone call and needed hours before getting the 20-minute video removed from the internet.

Cekuta was still alive when police found him in the early hours of Tuesday in the eastern village of Podbocje but he succumbed to his wounds in hospital in the afternoon

By that time it had received more than 250,000 views and garnered 400 'likes' on the social media website.

The Slovenske Novice daily reported in an article titled 'Died as Slovenia watched' that Cekuta and the two alleged attackers knew each other and were drunk when they fell into a quarrel.

It is not the first time that Facebook's Live tool, launched last year, has caused controversy.

Last month Swedish police arrested three men on suspicion of gang-raping a woman live on Facebook to a closed group with 60,000 members.

The film has been removed from Facebook but after it circulated on the internet.

The suspects, aged 18, 20 and 24, were arrested early Sunday in an apartment in Uppsala, 45 miles north of Stockholm, in the presence of their 30-year-old victim.

The arrest were made after members of a Facebook group saw the attack streamed live and alerted police.

Josefine Lundgren, 21, was one of the witnesses who watched the incident online and reported it.

She said she saw the victim being stripped and then sexually assaulted by several armed men and said the attack only ended several hours later when police arrived and switched off the webcam.

Swedish media published excerpts of the footage, showing at least one of the suspects holding a revolver.

Earlier in January four people in Chicago were accused of holding captive and assaulting a man with special needs live on the site over 30 minutes.

The gang shouted: 'F*** Trump' and 'F*** white people' during the attack.

In June last year gang member Antonio Perkins, 28, unwittingly live streamed his own death on Facebook after he was shot dead in Chicago while using the real time video app.