A pupil from Daveyton is shaken after witnessing a young man being set alight outside her high school.

The pupil‚ who cannot be identified because of her age‚ said the man was attacked by a mob of about 500 people on Wednesday afternoon in an ongoing gang-related feud between the Freaks and the Avanzas in the township east of Johannesburg.

“We don’t know where they got [him] but they dragged him to our school and wanted him to point out the rest of his gang members‚” she said.

The youth is affiliated to the Freaks gang‚ she claimed. He is not a pupil at her school.

“When he failed to point them out‚ they dragged him to the ground outside the schoolyard‚ put a tyre around his waist‚ poured petrol on him‚ set him alight and assaulted him‚” said the pupil.

She said they were shocked by the vicious assault. “Right now teachers are trying to calm everyone down and trying to get things back to normal because this was traumatising‚” she said.

Community member Sanele Mkhonza said the gang feud was allegedly triggered by the death of an innocent man three weeks ago.

“Nobody knows why they killed him‚ but the community became upset and mobilised to root out the gang members‚” said Mkhonza.

“This boy was said to be one of them who was involved in the murder three weeks ago.”

Police spokesman Captain Mavela Masondo said five men between the ages of 18 and 21 have been attacked since Tuesday. One has died.

“Gauteng police condemns in the strongest terms the acts of mob justice and vigilantism that took place in Daveyton over the past two days‚” said Masondo.