Police in the southern city of Shenzhen are looking for a man who allegedly kept a young woman as a sex slave in a dog cage.

The man, surnamed Chen and in his 40s, met the 17-year-old victim, surnamed Han, online and held her captive after she flew to Shenzhen to date him, the local Shenzhen Evening News reported yesterday.

Chen, who had studied in Japan, locked Han up in a dog cage in a residential complex basement in Longgang District, and raped her, Han told police after she escaped on February 28, two days after they met. Police did not say how she escaped.

Neighbors heard her cries for help and the woman was found with her hands and feet bound in iron chains.

Security guards at the complex saw the half-nude woman and called police, a local resident surnamed Li said.

Police discovered a 1.3-meter-high iron cage. A blanket was paved in the cage and clothes, very likely belonging to the woman, were hung on the balcony, Li added.

Another resident surnamed Wang said the apartment was rented out by the owner. "He did not rent the flat for long. We rarely saw him, but sometimes heard cries from there. We thought they were a quarrelling couple," Wang said.

Wang quoted security guards as saying that the man had been detained previously for participating in group sex parties, and was released only a year ago.

Police confirmed his criminal history but did not disclose any other details.

In September 2011, Li Hao, a Henan Province native, was found guilty of keeping six nightclub and karaoke bar workers as sex slaves in a basement of his apartment for two years. He murdered two of them.

Li repeatedly forced the six women to have sex with him since August 2009. He also forced them to perform pornographic acts, took pictures, uploaded them on the Internet and charged fees for viewing. He also loaned them out as prostitutes.

Li, then 35, was sentenced to death on November 30, 2012.

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