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A 'drive-in' brothel has opened providing prostitutes and customers with a host of services as they go about their business.

A number of wood-panelled 'sex boxes' are available to sex workers to ply their trade near Zurich in an attempt to drive prostitutes from the city and keep them safe.

Several dozen street sex workers are expected to make the location their working hub in the country where prostitution has been legal since 1942.

The publicly funded cubicles are open all night and are located away from the city centre and include bathrooms, laundry facilities and panic buttons.

There will also be welfare professionals in a move authorities believe will cut illegal trafficking of girls and organised crime activities in Switzerland's largest city.

The nine garage-style structures, located in Sihlquai, a former industrial quarter, are also guarded by security personnel.

(Image: Getty)

Clients will not be monitored by CCTV but are not allowed to leave the site with the sex workers.

Michael Herzig, from Zurich social services, said: "Prostitution has escalated in the city.

"It was done out in the open on the street and men harassed passers-by.

"It was noisy and dirty because men took the prostitutes to a side street and left used condoms on the streets.

"The drive-ins are more discreet and safer."

Around 30 to 40 women are expected ply their trade each night.

The hookers pay five Swiss francs per night to use the "sex boxes," but customers don't have to pay an entrance fee.