A British model has spoken of her ordeal after allegedly being sedated, handcuffed and kidnapped by masked men while in Milan.
Italian police said Chloe Ayling was snatched by a group calling itself Black Death last month and is believed to have been drugged and transported in a bag to an isolated village near Turin, where she was held for six days as her captors tried to auction her online.
The 20-year-old said she was injected with ketamine after being lured to a fake modelling shoot in Milan before being bundled into the boot of a car and told she was going to be sold as a sex slave, the Press Association reported.
Ayling, of Coulsdon, south London, has recalled her abduction calling it her “worst nightmare”.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday about the moment she was abducted, she said: “I didn’t know what was in the syringe. I was panicking. I thought they were going to rob or rape me. I was terrified beyond words.
“They dragged me to the floor. I just gave up – I thought, “I’m not going to get out of here alive.” I felt trapped, then everything went black.”
When she regained consciousness, she was in the boot of a car with her feet and legs handcuffed with her clothes partly removed.
Her alleged kidnappers told her they had taken the “wrong woman” as she had a son - but that she would be auctioned off with bids starting at 300,000 dollars (£230,000).
She said: “That was too much to take in. I was in shock. That will always be the worst day of my life.”
Ayling was eventually taken to the British Consulate in Milan after the “horrific ordeal”, but could not return home to London for almost three weeks.
Meanwhile, the chief suspect in the alleged kidnap has said he did not knowingly take part in any crime.
Lukasz Pawel Herba says his involvement stems from wanting to raise money to treat his leukaemia and that he was hired by a group of Romanians to rent properties around Europe to store garments they were selling, according to reports.
He is also said to have told investigators he posed as a photographer and met Ayling.
He said he was paid £500,000, found out the Romanians intended to kidnap her, and backed out of the plan.