FIVE Lancashire children have been rescued from the care of perverts fuelling their sick lust by viewing internet child porn.

They were judged to be at risk after parents or relatives were identified during an FBI investigation into a multi-million dollar internet site which sold adult pornography and images of child abuse.

Authorities said the adults and the social circles they kept could have led to the children being abused or filmed for illegal websites.

Now the youngsters have been put into care or fostered after police managed to round up the paedophiles.

Police today also revealed for the first time that from the list of 7,250 suspected users of the website handed to the National Crime Squad, 107 were from Lancashire.

Nationally, Operation Ore, as it was known, is believed to have saved 102 children from abuse by removing them from 'at risk' situations.

In addition, some 4,100 addresses were searched, 3,500 people arrested and 1,670 charged with offences with 1,230 being convicted.

Mary Marsh, chief executive of the NSPCC, welcomed the successes but said much more needed to be done.

She added: "Behind every image is a real child who has suffered horrific abuse and every time an individual accesses an internet site to view images, they are creating a demand for more children to be abused.

"This has been a clampdown on just one site.

"There are thousands of children in the UK who are suffering sexual cruelty and have no-one to turn to, with images of their abuse being peddled on the internet.

"We must protect them. It is important to learn from Operation Ore to successfully tackle other internet sites."

Detective Superintendent Mick Turner, of Lancashire Police, said: "There were 107 targets in Lancashire. All of those have been dealt with.

"On some, the intelligence was wrong, some had moved on and some were arrested and charged with offences.

"Five children were rescued from abusive situations.

"I think we can be confident that we have thoroughly investigated everybody on that list.

"A lot of people have been convicted of offences, some placed on the Sex Offenders' Register and others given other measures so their access to children can be controlled.

"The activity in relation to Operation Ore is completed now but we are, on a daily basis, dealing in cases that come to us from other routes."

Operation Ore was launched in May 2002 after an investigation into Texas-based website Landslide Inc.

The inquiries revealed it had customers across the world, including convicted paedophiles, teachers, social workers, police, magistrates, lawyers, businessmen, civil servants, doctors and people from the media.

Yesterday police officers across the country were updated on the successes of Operation Ore at a conference in Birmingham.

Assistant Chief Constable Jim Gamble, of the National Crime Squad, said: "The fact that more than 100 children in the UK alone have been removed from areas of abuse is good news.

"But it is a statistic we cannot celebrate.

"We must all continue to work together to create an environment where children are not put at risk."

Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Hyde, the lead officer on combating child abuse on the internet for the Association of Chief Police Officers, added: "We have learned a great deal from this work.

"We will continue to build on our success.

"We have much to do."