A local Chinese police chief has apologised and suspended four officers over an incident in which a man allegedly detained six women as sex slaves in an underground prison for two years, killing two of them, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.
Chinese media reported on Friday that police in Luoyang in Henan province had detained 34-four-year old retired firefighter, Li Hao, on charges of murdering and burying two of the women he had kidnapped.
Guo Congbin, director of the public security bureau of Luoyang in central China, told a police meeting that the case showed that community safety patrols were weak and officers had lost their sense of responsibility, Xinhua said.
"As the police chief, I bear the responsibility," Guo was quoted as saying, adding that he had suspended the work of four police officials over the case.
Li, who was detained on Sept. 6, kidnapped the six nightclub and karaoke bar workers and repeatedly raped them, the newspaper reported. He kept his victims weak to prevent them from escaping by feeding them only once every two days.
The women were allowed to leave the basement only when Li was short on cash to have sex with other men for money, the report said. A 23-year-old woman escaped during one of those sessions and led police to the basement.
Southern Metropolis Daily reporter Ji Xuguang, who was the first to report the case, said he had left Henan province after he was "threatened" and interrogated by officials who demanded he reveal his source, the China Daily reported.
Authorities have denied claims of an attempted cover-up, it said.
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