PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea—Papua New Guinea police say they are about to make their first arrests almost a week after a mob stripped, tortured and bound a woman accused of witchcraft, then burned her alive in front of hundreds of horrified people in the South Pacific nation's third largest city.

More than 50 members of the mob doused the 20-year-old mother with gasoline and then set her alight on a pile of car tires and trash in Mount Hagen last Wednesday. She had been accused of sorcery by relatives of a 6-year-old boy who had died in the local hospital the previous day.

Police spokesman Dominic Kakas on Tuesday said suspects had been identified through witness interviews. He said there will be as many as 50 arrests on charges of murder by Wednesday.