Kidnapped woman locked in dog cage for 20 DAYS after being snatched on night out and beaten with baseball bats
A KIDNAP victim was rescued after being locked in a dog cage for 20 days and beaten with baseball bats, police say.
Crooks demanded a ransom of £180,000 for the woman who was snatched while on a night out with a pal in the Philippines.
Police in Batangas City saved the woman after she managed to escape from her captors and fled to a convenience store.
They then raided the house where she had been held for almost three weeks, but the kidnappers had already gone.
Officers found the cramped cage - with just pillows and a red bucket inside - where she was kept hostage.
Nearby were a horrifying array of weapons used to beat and threaten her throughout her ordeal.
read more on gangs
The victim, a native of Shanghai, was not named for security reasons.
Reports said she had been kidnapped at a club in the red light district of Angeles City - some 120 miles from where she was rescued.
The police anti-kidnapping unit confirmed an abduction had been reported on September 17.
The victim's boyfriend said she had been whisked away by two Chinese nationals and a Filipino in a white Toyota Fortuner.
Most read in News
Later he received a video from an unknown number that allegedly showed her being struck with a baseball bat.
The kidnappers demanded a $200,000 ransom for her freedom.
It is unclear how the victim managed to break free from her captors in the early hours of October 6.
Police chief Brigadier General Jose Melencio Nartatez said: "I commend the operatives of Batangas City Police Station for saving the victim.
"Your timely response foiled yet another kidnapping incident involving Chinese nationals.
"Such atrocities should not proliferate in our region.
"We should strengthen our intelligence efforts and maintain police presence in the streets as a deterrent to possible kidnapping and other crimes.
"I want these kidnappers to be arrested. We cannot tolerate these criminals who victimised innocent civilians for their own gain."
Just days before the woman was snatched, Beijing's envoy to Manila warned Chinese women were being targeted in a wave of kidnappings linked to gambling gangs.
The embassy asked Philippine authorities “to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens in the country”.
It said there had been frequent cases of “kidnapping, blackmailing, illegal detention, and other vicious cases” targeting its nationals linked to online gaming and telecommunications fraud.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Read More on The Sun
Victims - mainly female - are held hostage by casinos and may be turned over to syndicated collectors linked to underworld rings.
The women are tortured and threatened while their families in China are extorted to pay ransoms, reports the South China Morning Post.