Hunt on for accomplices in kidnap of British model in Italy for online sex slave auction

Twenty-year-old model Chloe Ayling.PHOTO: CHLOE AYLING/INSTAGRAM.

ROME: A hunt for possible accomplices to the terrifying abduction of a British model in Italy was underway on Sunday after the alleged mastermind told police he planned to auction her off as a sex slave on the dark web.

Italian police have confirmed they are looking for at least one other man following the arrest of British-resident Pole Lukasz Pawel Herba, 30, on charges of abduction and illegal imprisonment.

According to Italian media reports, citing leaked files from the investigation, the 20-year-old mother has told police she saw two men and was aware of three others but never saw their faces during her week-long ordeal in July.

The model, who returned to Britain on Sunday, was drugged and kidnapped on July 11 after going to what turned out to be a set-up photo shoot in downtown Milan.

"Somebody wearing black gloves came up from behind me and put one hand on my neck and the other over my mouth, while a second person wearing a balaclava injected me in my right arm," the woman, was quoted as telling police by Italy's Corriere della Sera, which named her as Chloe Ayling.

"I think I passed out because when I woke up I only had on my pink chenille body and socks and I realised I was in the boot of a car, bound at the ankle and wrists with my mouth taped up. I was in a luggage bag with only a small gap to to breathe through."