In chains: Two Chinese prostitutes barefoot so they won't run away, are handcuffed and tied to a rope by police as part of a crackdown on the sex trade in ChinaHandcuffed, shoeless and tied to a rope, these girls are being led through the streets of China as part of a police crackdown against prostitution.
But the images of the girls being frogmarched down the Guangzhou road - with their shoes removed to stop them running away - have shocked many in China.
An outraged Chinese woman named Wan Yu took the images on her mobile phone and posted on the web.
She said: 'These girls are still young and should be given the minimum respect.
Parading them through the streets like animals in full view of the public is not the way to treat them.'
With the upcoming 2010 Asian Games being hosted in the Guangdong province on China's southern coast this November, officials have ordered a crackdown on the sex industry to clean up the streets.
Guangzhou, which is the capital of the province, is the second city in China to host the Games after Beijing in 1990.
A police spokesman defended the broad daylight action saying the girls had been ordered to give them information about where they plied their trade.
