Police have arrested 11 people during a crackdown on child exploitation in south Manchester.

The suspects were held on suspicion of offences including rape, sexual activity with a child and inciting a child into prostitution.

The swoop, known as Operation Heliodor, was part of a Project Phoenix - a wider, multi-agency campaign to tackle child sexual exploitation. Officers raided six properties and detained eleven people aged between 19 and 38.

Police said that the arrests came after months of intervention by the ‘Protect’ team into the sexual exploitation of girls and its links to organised crime in and around the Longsight area, and other parts of Greater Manchester.

The team is made up of police, children’s services, health services and Barnardos, and covers Salford and Manchester.

Det Insp Debbie Oakes, of the Greater Manchester Police’s Protect Team, said: “Tackling child sexual exploitation and those responsible for such heinous crimes is an absolute priority for us.

"I want to assure our communities that combatting CSE is a Force priority for GMP and we would encourage anyone who is a victim of this kind of abuse to come to either us, a family member or the charities and support agencies who are out there and help us bring the offenders to justice.

“We have forged strong links with our partner agencies, including Barnardo’s and NSPCC, and by effective safeguarding and partnership disruption of perpetrators, we can tackle this problem head on.

"We listen to the children and put them at the heart of our investigations and tactics, to ensure their safety and wellbeing is at the forefront of everything we do.

“Operation Heliodor is ongoing and, with this collaborative approach, we will continue to target those involved in CSE. I fully anticipate more warrants and arrests as we continue in our investigation.”

Lynn Perry MBE, Regional Director for Barnardo’s in the West said: “We are pleased to be at the heart of an inter-agency partnership in Greater Manchester tackling child sexual exploitation; supporting and enabling young people to speak out and providing child victims of sexual exploitation with appropriate, long term support.”

The arrests came after a week of action to help prevent child sexual exploitation and raise awareness of the issue in Greater Manchester and the launch of the campaign – “It’s not Okay”.

The initiative aims to protect children at risk by increasing public understanding of child sexual exploitation and how to spot the warning signs of CSE.