Hours after a court awarded death sentence to seven persons in connection with the lynching of three women in West Midnapore on suspicion of being witches, a woman was lynched at Debra area in the district late on Tuesday night on the suspicion of witchcraft.

A senior district police officer said Sambari Tudu, 45, was dragged from her house at Birsinghpur hamlet under Debra police station area by some locals late last night after a local village court held a sitting and blamed her for the death of some neighbours due to ailments.

She was thrashed after being tied to a post and as she slumped to the ground the attackers left the spot, the officer said quoting some eyewitnesses.

As a police force recovered the body today tension escalated in the area.

The police officer said eight persons have been arrested in connection with the incident so far and further raids were continuing.

Seven persons, including a woman, were sentenced to death and six others to life imprisonment by a court in Ghatal yesterday for the 2012 lynching of three women of a single family on suspicion of their being witches at a village in the same district.