Prostitution raid saves 40 lives in Turkey

VAN - Hürriyet

The hotel after the quake. DHA Photo

A police raid on a prostitution ring in the eastern province of Van saved 40 people from certain death from the 7.2-magnitutde earthquake that struck the city in October, reports revealed.

The police had just pulled 40 suspects out of a shoddy hotel when the building collapsed from the quake that hit the eastern province.

The raid had followed a seven month investigation on a prostitution network in the city that led the police forces to the hotel. 

Police had captured nearly 40 people including prostitutes, customers and mediators and forced them out of the building to be taken into custody minutes before the building crumbled to the ground.
 

Nine bodies were pulled out of the rubble afterward while the prostitution suspects survived without even minor injuries. 

The women under custody were deported and the customers were released in the following days, Hürriyet reported.