A man has been arrested for building a dungeon and stocking it with 6 sex slaves he kidnapped locally and raped at will, eventually killing two to further terrorise the others and only being discovered when one escaped whilst being rented to another man.

The 34-year-old fireman reportedly dug out a two-room dungeon 4m under the basement of his Henan province home four years ago, living above with his wife and children.

He then proceeded to kidnap 6 women from local bars and nightclubs, imprisoning them in his dungeon for use as sex slaves.

He raped them frequently, feeding them only every other day in order to keep them too weak to resist, and only allowed them out of the dungeon when he rented them to other men.

This proved to be his undoing – a 23-year-old woman managed to escape during one of these encounters and subsequently led police back to his home, where they liberated 3 other women and discovered the bodies of two more women, murdered and buried in his basement.

One captive had spent 2 years imprisoned in the dungeon, and he is said to have killed the two women as punishment for defying him, and in order to cow them further, forcing the others to help bury them.

Supposedly neither his family nor his neighbours were aware of his dungeon, as he had carefully disposed of the spoil from his excavations in the dead of night, and he only began renting out his slaves when he ran into financial troubles.

The man responsible was arrested as he attempted to leave the city. Authorities are evaluating him to determine whether he is fit to face trial.

The local journalist who first reported the case also claims men from the government attempted to intimidate him into remaining silent about the case, claiming he was revealing “state secrets.” He defied them and reported the incident anyway.