South Africa police rescue 26 Ethiopians held captive naked

South African police said on Friday that they had rescued 26 undocumented Ethiopian nationals who were being held captive without clothes in a suburban house in Johannesburg by suspected human traffickers.

Up to 30 other men may have already escaped through a smashed window before police swooped in on the house late on Thursday and could be hiding in the area, the police priority crimes unit said.

According to preliminary information from the rescued men, the group was held in the house in the Sandringham suburb in northern Johannesburg without clothes or documents, Colonel Philani Nkwalase said.

Last August, police found more than 80 undocumented Ethiopians locked in a house in the same suburb in inhumane conditions and without adequate food and personal hygiene facilities.

Late on Thursday, residents of the area alerted police about a suspected break-in under way at the house, where a window was shattered and its burglar bars were broken, Nkwalase said.