Over 100 'Human Trafficking' Victims Rescued

More than 100 people, suspected of being victims of a human trafficking gang, have been rescued from a house in Houston, Texas.

When officers opened the door to the property they found "a large, large group of people, some sitting on top of one another, in very confined spaces".

A spokesman for the Houston Police Department said dozens of the victims were dressed only in underwear and were sitting in filthy conditions surrounded by bin bags full of old clothes.

They had been kept in a number of small rooms with access to just one toilet and no hot water.

Police made the discovery during a search for a 24-year-old woman and her two children who had been reported missing by relatives.

The spokesman added: "They yell out the woman's name to see if she is in there, and she emerges with the two children. They're OK."

Investigators found 94 men, 15 women and the mother with her two children.

Many of the women said they had been in the house for up to four days. One told police she had been there for more than two weeks.

A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it had been five years since officials uncovered a house in Houston with this many people inside - in 2012 a house with 86 people was discovered.

The victims, who have been taken into custody and are being questioned, are mainly from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador.

Five men have been arrested in connection with the discovery.