Maputo  - Police in Mozambique have detained two Turkish men for sexually abusing boys they lured to a religious school on the pretext of learning about Islam, state television reported Thursday.

Public broadcaster TVM said the men faced charges of keeping 17 underage boys in captivity and forcing them to take part in orgies in an exclusive suburb of the capital, Maputo.

Police would only confirm there "are two men in custody and the case has already been taken to court."

"Boys aged 10 to 17 years old are being abused by foreigners who lured them into coming to Maputo to study and learn about Islam," the report said.

The boys came from different provinces and some had been kept in captivity for up to two years without contact with the outside world, the broadcast said.

One of the boys aged 16, from Quelimane in Zambezia province, told TMV: "I was brought here in 2006 along with my younger brother, my cousin and two other friends.

"These men asked our parents to surrender us to come here to study Islam. They said they were looking for students. Our parents sent us here believing the false pretence.

"They would come and pick one of the boys and take him into a bedroom. They abused us sexually and took pictures which they then took to South Africa and Turkey.

"I first learned about this when, one day, my younger brother came to me and told me one of the men had forced him to have anal sex. They mistreated us and beat us so we would keep silent about what was happening," he said.

The boys were reportedly kept in a luxury three story house, just 500 metres from the local police station. Neighbours said they never suspected anything untoward was happening. (dpa)