The judge shot two people and then the crowd killed him with sticks and machetes

National Civil Police spokesman

The peasants confronted Judge Hugo Martinez about the verdict, attacked him with machetes and sticks and then set fire to the court.

Residents of Senahu, 370 km (231 miles) north of Guatemala City, also took at least four local police officers hostage, according to officials.

The peasants gathered outside the court on Tuesday, where there was an exchange of words with the judge, who got out his weapon and wounded two peasants.

The crowd responded by beating the judge and attacking him with machetes and sticks.

A population brutalised by decades of war and human rights abuse

National Civil Police spokesman Faustino Sanchez said two people were injured.

"The judge shot two people and then the crowd killed him with sticks and machetes," Mr Sanchez said.

The spokesman said that the Special Police Force (FEP) commandos sent to the area to try to free the hostages have been unable to enter the town because of opposition from the neighbours.

Mob lynching is not uncommon in impoverished and crime-ridden Guatemala.

Mob justice had claimed at least three lives in the country so far this year, according to Faustino Sanchez.

Experts say a legacy of violence remains in the country, which in 1996 emerged from a 36-year civil war that killed 200,000 people, mostly Mayan peasants.