A woman and her two children have been rescued from a horror life of sexual abuse and torture after being held hostage in an underground cellar of an Italian house for a decade.

The woman, from Romania, had been imprisoned in the home in Calabria, in southern Italy, since 2007 after she arrived at the home to work as a carer for an Italian family, Repubblica reports. She and her children was rescued by police on Tuesday.

There are conflicting reports that suggest the then young female carer was employed to look after an ailing Italian father who lived with his son or an ailing Italian woman and her male partner.

However, it would appear that after either the ailing father or ailing female partner died, the young Italian man kept the then young Romanian woman as his captive.

She was reportedly imprisoned in a series of apartments before being moved to a rundown cabin near Gizzeria in the Calabria region of Italy.

To stop her from escaping, the man chained the cabin’s door shut. She was forced to stay in the dark shack with beds made of cardboard and toilets made from rubbish bins.

After years of constant sexual abuse, the woman gave birth to two children – a boy and a girl. The woman reportedly never saw a doctor during her two pregnancies.

Following their births, the children were forced to live in the same squalled conditions as their mother. There are even reports that the woman’s son was forced to inflict torture on her.

Local Italian media claims at least the older child, a boy, attended school and on at least one occasion travelled in the car with his captor.

It was on one of these car rides, during a routine police stop, that the Italian man’s secret horror house was discovered.

Police became concerned for the boy’s welfare after officers noticed how significantly dirty he appeared and how he seemed a little unusual.

After demanding to speak with the boy’s mother and be taken to where the child lived, officers uncovered the underground hell hole.

Police footage from inside the cellar shows clothes and other possessions stacked high around the small walls.

A makeshift toilet – made from a chair and a bucket through the chair’s seat – can be seen resting against one of the walls. A bright purple pram can be seen hanging on another. A metal bucket was also found containing loaves of bread and unrefrigerated and out-of-date packaged food.

The woman and her children were immediately removed from the home. The woman is being treated in hospital while the children are in care.