Police in the Cretan port of Hania were yesterday questioning a 41-year-old Romanian man alleged to have been illegally trading in eggs removed from the ovaries of two Romanian women being detained against their will.

The man is alleged to have locked the two women, aged 20 and 27, in an apartment in Hania and injected the elder of the two with a drug that is believed to boost egg production. He is thought to have been operating with the assistance of a Romanian woman who is being sought by police.

The pair are believed to have been selling the eggs for between 600 and 2,000 euros each, though it is unclear whether the eggs were being sold to clinics or individual doctors.

Police are trying to determine whether the younger detainee was also subjected to the same injections.