KUNMING, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Railway police in southwest China have rescued 33 women trafficked from Vietnam and busted several cross-border human trafficking rings, local authorities announced Thursday.

Police in Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, have caught 78 suspects involved in international women trafficking, Kunming railway police said.

Police launched an investigation after they found several women holding fake ID cards and unable to speak Chinese, at Kunming railway station in October 2016.

Preliminary investigation showed that gang members had colluded with suspects in Vietnam, conning Vietnamese women into China by pretending that they were offering recruitment, travel and matchmaking services.

The trafficked Vietnamese women have been transferred to Vietnamese police.