Five Cameroonian policemen have been arrested on suspicion of torture after a video was made public showing police officers torturing a detainee, according to a senior police officer.

Cameroon’s police chief, Martin Mbarga Nguele said the five police officers were taken into custody and appeared before a judge over the alleged torture, which took place in the capital, Yaounde last week.

The video, which went viral in the Central African nation on Wednesday, showed the policemen interrogating, assaulting and then severely beating the detainee suspected of theft.

Nguele said in a statement made public on Saturday that the treatment was “inhuman”.

“The measures applied (against the policemen) are only the continuity of the permanent action in progress for a citizen police force, truly at the service of everyone because the daily act of the police officer must tend today only toward the well-being of the citizen,” Nguele said in the statement.

“For more than a decade, the national security has embarked on the path of professionalism, modernization and change of mentality and morality,” he added while stressing that the population must also respect and collaborate with the police.