Henan police released grisly photographs of the dungeon in which six women were held as sex slaves for up to two years and of the ex-fireman who raped, tortured and forced them into prostitution, state media reported.
Adding a new twist to the scandal that has shocked the country, Central China Television (CCTV) reported on Wednesday that the four surviving women had been arrested and charged with helping 34-year-old Li Hao kill one of their two fellow prisoners who died in the dungeon.
The report said prosecutors approved their arrest on Tuesday on the charge of 'causing the death of others by malicious injury'. The phone of the Luoyang Public Security Bureau's press office rang unanswered yesterday afternoon.
Li Hongjiang, the bureau's deputy head, told CCTV that one of the women killed, from Sichuan, tried to fight back and was strangled by Li Hao. A second woman who struggled for freedom also died after being tortured by Li Hao and the other women, he said.
'She couldn't put up with it and together they tortured her to death,' he said, without giving details. 'She was also buried [in the basement].'
One of the women was killed in the second half of last year and the other in July this year, the report said. Police found their bodies after they raided the dungeon.
Some of the women were forced to help dig their own prison - a dungeon six metres underground below a cellar - where they were confined in unhygienic conditions, the report said. They were locked behind several metal gates block their escape .