US police find disabled locked up in basement

Three people have been charged after police found four mentally disabled adults chained to a boiler in a locked Philadelphia basement.

Officers investigating a report of squatters found a 29-year-old woman and three men, aged 31, 35 and 41, in a 15ft by 15ft room behind a steel door chained shut. It was too small for an adult to stand up straight and reeked of waste from lavatory buckets.

Police are investigating the possibility that the suspects were trying to claim the victims' welfare benefits.

Linda Weston, 51, Thomas Gregory, 47, and Eddie Wright, 49, face charges including aggravated assault and false imprisonment. The victims were malnourished and had apparently been brought to Philadelphia about 10 days before they were found in the dark by the building's landlord, Turgut Gozleveli. He said: "It was terrible. Something I never expected to see in my life."