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Three young women - including one aged just 15 - were raped, tortured and murdered with their deaths livestreamed on TikTok, police have said. Detectives in Argentina believe roughly 45 people watched the sadistic scenes, in which one woman had fingers amputated and another was suffocated with a plastic bag, on a closed group on the social media platform.

One of the three victims, Lara Gutierrez, was just 15. The others have been named as Brenda del Castillo, 20, and Morena Verdi, 21. Local reports say a narco gang had accused the trio of stealing cocaine and tricked them into going to the 'horror house' around 20 miles from their homes, where they were brutally killed on the outskirts of the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires.

The gang leader who allegedly ordered the 'revenge killings' and arranged for them to be killed as a 'deterrent' to others has been identified as a Peruvian national believed to have fled the country.

Confirming the horror crimes were filmed and transmitted live online, Buenos Aires' security minister Javier Alonso said: "It was for a closed group of around 45 people. That's the information we have obtained so far from the investigation.

"It is relevant to the motive for the murders, which is that the leader of the gang is saying: 'This is what happens to you if you steal drugs from me.'"

Mr Alonso added yesterday, speaking after the bodies of the three young women were found five days after they went missing around 9.30pm last Friday.

He explained: "They were last seen getting into a vehicle voluntarily because they had been invited to an event, not knowing they were falling into a trap set for them by an international drugs trafficking gang which had hatched a plan to kill them.

"The families of the victims have been informed. The bodies were found in the early hours of the morning buried in a garden.

"The drugs trafficking organisation has its operational command in Buenos Aires and they had chosen this house to carry out the murders.

"Four people have so far been arrested. The vehicle the girls were picked up in was located 100 metres from the house. It had been set alight and was burnt out."We are convinced the victims were killed on Friday night between 11pm and midnight."Our investigation to apprehend the intellectual and material authors is very advanced."

The regional government minister went on to dub the murders "a narco act of revenge."

Unconfirmed local reports claimed one or two of the three women killed had been accused of stealing four kilos of cocaine from the gang in circumstances that have yet to be clarified.

Lara Gutierrez, the 15-year-old murdered, is said to have had all five fingers on her left hand amputated before her captors ended her life.

Brenda Del Castillo, 20, had a skull fracture and her stomach had been cut open after she was killed. Morena Verdi, 21, was the one who was reportedly asphyxiated with a plastic bag found pulled over her head.The event they were tricked into attending has been described locally as a sex party and the women are said to have been offered £220 each to attend.

One Buenos Aires prosecutor said overnight: "This is the most sordid and horrifying case we have ever had to deal with."

Josefina del Castillo, describing Brenda and Morena as her nieces, said in an appeal for information on their whereabouts before their bodies were discovered: "They are three young girls, three families that are today suffering and desperate. Please contact the authorities if you have any information."

She added in a second message after the horror discovery, taking aim at those who had criticised the women's lifestyles: "Thank you to all those who accompanied without judgement and without too many questions.

"Thank you to all those who understood the oldest of these girls was just 20.

"Nobody deserved the ending they had. All lives matter."

Although the number of arrests was put at four yesterday, eight more suspects are understood to have been held overnight.

Two were women caught cleaning the 'horror house' in the Buenos Aires suburb of Florencia Varela where the killings took place when it was raided by police.

Four of those held so far have been named. Three are Argentinians aged 18, 19 and 28 who include the two women. The other one is a Peruvian 27-year-old.