Police in Belgium have arrested more than 20 people suspected of involvement in an international pedophilia ring.
The network covers around a dozen countries but is particularly active in Belgium as well as Denmark, England, Switzerland and the United States, the La Derniere-Heurenewspaper reported.
"The investigation in Belgium has finished but it is being actively pursued abroad," the paper said, adding that 22 people had been arrested.
The inquiry was centred on the towns of Verviers and Charleroi. Prosecutors in Charleroi said the international network was based in Switzerland.
Charleroi hit the headlines in March last year when a man was accused of torturing and raping his own eight-month-old daughter there. It was one of a series of horrific cases of sexual abuse in Belgium in recent years.
The revelations come almost six years since the arrest of suspected Belgian child killer and rapist Marc Dutroux, whose alleged crimes horrified the country. He is expected to go on trial next year.
Dutroux is accused of kidnapping and murdering two young girls and two teenagers, whose bodies were found at his properties in 1996. He also stands accused of raping the four girls, as well as two others who were found alive on one of his properties.
AFP