CAIRO -- Egypt's justice minister warned Monday that the lynching of criminals in the streets by angry citizens is a sign of the "death of the state."

On Sunday, vigilantes hung two suspected thieves in a rural Nile Delta village as a crowd of thousands watched, and some of them egged on the killers.

Justice Minister Ahmed Mekki indicated that the killers may have seen themselves as implementing a strict form of Islamic law that calls for punishment of thieves and other outlaws whose crimes are so extreme, they disrupt society.