Police in China have arrested a gang of human traffickers for kidnapping 14 women and five children to sell as wives in rural China.

The human traffickers lured the women, 11 of whom were from Myanmar, with promises of free holidays or jobs. The women and children were then sold for as much as 50,000 to 90,000 yuan (£8,141), according to China state news agency Xinhua.

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A total of 31 suspects allegedly involved in abducting and trafficking of the women were apprehended by police in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Police found out about the gang after one of the abducted women approached a police officer for help during a train journey from Baotou to Nanchang. The woman told the officer that she had been taken against her will from Myanmar to China. The abductor was arrested after he tried to drag her away.

Trafficking of women in China has become an increasingly common problem, which many say is a side effect of the one-child policy that left the country with a dearth of women, and an overabundance of single men.

Chinese state media reported in September that police were shutting down websites offering all-male tours to South East Asia where travellers could meet "foreign brides" for a fee, according to Reuters.

Just last week Chinese police announced that they busted two gangs for abducting mentally handicapped women and selling them as sex slaves for as much as 10,000 to 20,000 yuan ($1,634 to $3,268).

Police in Dingyuan county in eastern China's Anhui Province said the two gangs held the women in a local village, where they raped beat them before being selling the victims off to farmers.

According to the police, gangs have abducted no fewer than 10 women from Anhui and nearby Jiangsu province over the past five years.

TagsChinese Police Bust Gang for Selling Women Children as Wives in China, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Kidnapping, abduction, sold as wives, Myanmar, burma