DHAKA (Reuters) -- Angry Bangladeshis have killed 28 people suspected to be pirates preying on shipping and villages near the country's main port, Chittagong, police said on Tuesday.

"The pirates were caught and lynched by agitated villagers on the Noakhali coast -- 20 on Monday and eight on Sunday," police superintendent Mohammad Mezbahunnabi told Reuters by telephone.

He said villagers had joined police raids on suspected hideouts of the pirates and that they had been asked to hand over any suspects who were captured. "But the villagers were so angry that they lynched 28 pirates and handed six to police," Mezbahunnabi said. "The situation is still tense as villagers vowed to continue their hunt."

Streams of villagers continued to converge along the shores of the Bay of Bengal, particularly at Char Clerk, an island 250km (150 miles) south of Dhaka, in search of more pirates, he said.

Police said pirates killed at least 20 villagers, looted property and raped dozens of local women in recent years, provoking the backlash.

Chittagong, which handles 80 percent of Bangladesh's exports and imports, is the world's second most vulnerable port to piracy, according to a recent report by the International Maritime Organization.