A group of nine armed robbers were beaten to death or shot in northern Bangladesh Thursday by a mob of angry villagers, police said.Some 500 villagers surrounded the robbers after they were spotted in a field in the northern district of Natore, local police chief Mohammad Abubakr told AFP. “At least eight robbers were caught by villagers and beaten mercilessly as they tried to flee the village by shooting at the mob,” he said, adding that the bullet-riddled body of another robber was found nearby.