BEIRUT: Police closed down a nightclub in Maameltein for hiring minors and subjecting them to financial and sexual exploitation, the Internal Security Forces said in a statement it issued Tuesday.

According to the statement, police received information that a nightclub in Maameltein was employing underage girls to dance in a bedouin-themed group.

Following investigations with three underage girls who were working at the club, police discovered that the club owners had made an agreement with the girls’ parents to hire their daughters to dance in the club from 2 a.m. until 5 a.m. for LL15,000 a day, the statement said.

The girls told the police they had been surprised to discover that the club owners requested that they sit with customers for LL10,000 and affirmed that they had been sexually harassed by the customers but had not engaged in prostitution.

Police then arrested the girls’ parents who confessed to their crime. The search is ongoing for the club owners.