Citizens in a town in western Guatemala beat and burned their mayor to death in an apparent act of vengeance over political rivalries.

According to BBC, Mayor Basilio Juracan died on Sunday afternoon after locals beat him up and set him on fire in Concepcion, Solola province, a town located 100 miles west of Guatemala City. Angered locals went on a meticulous house-to-house search, which also involved setting three homes and two vehicles on fire belonging to Juracan's relatives.

At least six buildings were also burned, including a restaurant and an Internet café, The Guardian wrote. Police officials reportedly arrived too late to save the mayor, BBC noted.

La Prensa Grafica, a Guatemalan newspaper, reported on Monday that the mob poured gasoline on Juracan and set him alight using a matchstick. One of his sons was slashed with a machete and had to be confined in a local hospital, Fox News Latino reported.

Juracan, 43, was reelected as the mayor of Concepcion last month, beating Lorenzo Sequec in the race, BBC wrote. After the result of the election, Sequec accused Juracan of mismanagement and insisted an investigation into the town's missing funds.

Residents believe that Juracan was involved in an attack involving Sequec and his family earlier on Sunday, hours before the mayor was killed by the mob, the news outlet added. Sequec and his family were reportedly travelling along a local road when another vehicle cut them off.

Unidentified gunmen stepped out of the car and fired shots at Sequec's vehicle, resulting to the death of his 17-year-old daughter and 16-year-old niece and left Sequec and four others injured, BBC added.

Enraged residents began their hunt on Juracan when news of the ambush broke out, the news outlet further reported. They suspected that Juracan was behind the attack on Sequec.

Guatemala belongs to one of the most violent countries in Latin America. Gun crime is widespread in the country, but lynching an elected official is deemed unusual, BBC wrote.

A police report said that another former candidate urged locals to attack Juracan, The Guardian added. Rural parts of Guatemala often see vigilante killings because of the lack of police officials in the areas.

Guatemala, along with Honduras and El Salvador, is "considered to be the most violent non-war zone on the planet," Fox News Latino reported. According to figures issued recently by the state's National Institute of Forensic Sciences, there were 2,343 murders reported in Guatemala between January and May. In 2014, there was an average of 15.5 homicides per day.