Police rescued seven women trafficked in south China, including four from Vietnam, said local sources on Sunday.

The Vietnamese women were rescued last Tuesday in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where they were sold at 2,000 to 5,000 yuan (294 to 735 US dollars) and forced into prostitution, said Zheng Yu, an officer with the police bureau of Zhongshan city in Guangdong.

Three Chinese women were rescued by police in the Qiongshan district of Haikou city, capital of the island Hainan province last Friday, according to police officer Li Xiaodong from Zhongshan. They had been seduced by men at the name of "making friends" before forced into prostitution.

In the two cases, police nabbed 12 suspects.

The rescued Vietnamese women were currently under protection of police, who are providing medical service to them and trying to contact their families.

The Chinese women were young and migrant workers.

Chinese police launched a nationwide campaign against the trafficking of children and women in early April, which will run through this year.

According to China's Ministry of Public Security, police rescued 196 children and 214 women and broke up 72 human trafficking rings from April 9 to May 4.

Most of these crimes occurred in Guizhou, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shandong, Henan and Shanxi Provinces.

(Xinhua News Agency June 15, 2009)