Hong Kong police have arrested 10 people for allegedly operating a social media group selling upskirt photos of women, with suspected criminal proceeds reaching about HK$4 million (US$512,100).

Senior Superintendent Frances Lee King-hei of the force’s cybersecurity and technology crime bureau said on Wednesday that officers had found more than 15,000 upskirt images in a social media chat group operated by the syndicate.

She added that 2,000 of the images were of uniformed female students, with about 200 pupils currently identifiable.

But she said officers were still determining the total amount of content stored on the 11 phones and five laptops confiscated, as well as in a cloud service behind the operation.

Six men and four women, aged between 20 and 62, were arrested for their alleged involvement in operating the chat group, with an unemployed couple suspected of being the syndicate masterminds.

“We have successfully smashed a local syndicate that was using social media platforms to publish voyeuristic photos and obscene items,” Lee said.