Suspects are ordered to stand in a line at a local police station. The youngest of them is 18 years old. [Photo: Huashphoto.com]

By Zhang Liuhao

Police in Xi'an in northwest China's Shaanxi Province have arrested nine men for allegedly raping 23 women and girls over the past two years.

Police said it was the biggest case of the type that they've solved in the past 20 years, Chinese newspapers reported yesterday. The youngest victim was 14 years old.

On September 30, a tipster told local police that several young men in Sanyuan County boasted about how they once gang raped a girl in Liyang Town of Lintong District.

Though the girl hadn't reported the case, police searched for the victim and suspects, including Jia Kun, Ren Kang and Li Pengtao. Police caught nine members of the gang this month.

The police alleged the men colluded beginning in the summer of 2004 to commit rape.

In April 2005, Jiajia, an alias, a 19-year-old woman, met Ren on her way home after work in Sanyuan County. Ren was a friend Jiajia had met through the Internet.

Ren invited Jiajia to his home, and she agreed without hesitation. Ren and Jiajia got in a minibus to the county's Poxi Town. The driver was Jia.

About 10pm, all the passengers except her had left the vehicle. She demanded to be returned home, but Jia and Ren refused. Jia continued to take a leisurely drive.

Jia stopped the bus on an obscure section of road. Ren got off. Police allege Jia raped Jiajia on the bus.

On the night of September 14, this year, Jia drove his vehicle to Lintong District, with Ren, Li and two other men. Li had invited a young woman, alias Xiaoyu, to go out for a drive. Police allege the five men raped her in a corn field.