A woman was beaten to death and her family brutally attacked after a lynch mob mistook her for a child-snatcher when she gave chocolates to children.

The victims were attacked in the Tiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu, Southern India.

The mob assumed the family were child-snatchers due to a recent hoax spread in the area.

A woman was beaten to death and her family brutally attacked after they were mistaken for child-snatchers

The police have identified the deceased as Rukmani, 65, from Old Pallavaram in Chennai.

The other injured relatives were identified as Venkatesan, 52, S Mohan Kumar, 33, Chandrasekheran, 34, and R Gajendran.

The victims had been on a family trip in the area and were on their way to visit the Muthumariamman temple.

The vicious attack happened when they asked for directions from an old lady sitting outside with her grandchildren.

On seeing the children Rukmani started distributing sweets to them.

A lynch mob (pictured) viciously attacked them when the family asked for directions from an old lady sitting outside with her grandchildren

The grandmother raised an alarm suspecting the group to be child-snatchers. Villagers hounded the family and beat them

The grandmother raised an alarm suspecting the group to be child-snatchers.

Villagers hounded the family and began questioning them.

The visiting family tried to speed away in their car but the villagers chased them and pelted stones at their car.

The victims were finally caught by locals and pulled out to be brutally beaten in turns.

The visiting family tried to speed away in their car but the villagers chased them and pelted stones at their car

The family are said to have showed their passport to make the villagers believe that they were not child lifters.

The police have arrested 43 villagers in connection with the incident and confirmed that they'd all be tried for murder.

A police statement said: 'We have been getting calls for the last two or three days related to similar incidents'

'We are trying to educate people and have asked them not to believe such hoaxes and report anything suspicious to the police first.'

Police said a child-snatcher hoax had been spread in the area which prompted the attack

This is not the first incident of this nature in the area.

In a similar incident earlier on April 22, a teenager was killed while his two friends had sustained injuries when a group of villagers in the Sumangali village mistook them as child-snatchers.

Another incident was reported on April 29, where a 30-year-old man was killed when the villagers mistook him for a robber.