Thirteen brothers and sister shave been rescued by police after a number of them were found chained to beds in “foul-smelling, dirty surroundings”.

A 17-year-old girl called police after escaping from her family’s California home where she and her 12 siblings were locked up, some so malnourished officers at first believed all were children even though seven are adults.

The girl, who was so small officers initially believed she was only 10, called 911 on a mobile phone she found in the house, and was met by police who interviewed her and then went to the family home in Perris, about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

They found several children shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in the dark, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

The children, ages two to 29, “appeared to be malnourished and very dirty,” according to officers who arrested the parents.

All the children are now being treated in local hospitals.

The head of one of the hospitals, Mark Uffer, said: “It’s actually heartbreaking for the staff and it’s unbelievable what you see.”

David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, each were held on $9 million (£6.5m) bail and could face charges including torture and child endangerment.

Mr Turpin’s parents were reported as saying that they had not seen the family for four or five years.

James and Betty Turpin said they were considered a good Christian family in their community and that “God called on them” to have so many children.

Neighbours said they were stunned by the arrests. Andrew Santillan, who lives around the corner, heard about the case from a friend.

“I had no idea this was going on,” he said. “I didn’t know there were kids in the house.”

Other neighbours described the family as intensely private.

Robert Perkins said that, a few years ago, he and his mother saw a few family members constructing a Nativity scene in the Turpins’ front yard. Mr Perkins said he complimented them on it.

“They didn’t say a word,” he said.

Another neighbour said the Turpin family “were the type that you didn’t really get to know anything about them.

“You would never see them on visit, you would never see anyone come outside. All you would really see is that they go out and maybe do a grocery round.”

Across the street, Kimberly Milligan, 50, said the Turpins seemed strange and she wondered why the children never came out to play.

She said said she had only seen the baby in its mother’s arms and three other children since she moved to the street two years ago.

“I thought the kids were home-schooled,” she said. “You know something is off, but you don’t want to think bad of people.

“In hindsight, we would have never thought this, but there were red flags. You never don’t hear or see nine kids.”

She said she was admiring Christmas lights in the neighbourhood two years ago and encountered three of the Turpin children and complimented them on the manger with a baby Jesus outside their house.

The children froze as if doing so would make them invisible, she said.

She said: “Twenty-year-olds never act like that. They didn’t want to have a social conversation.”

The Turpins filed for bankruptcy in 2011, stating in court documents they owed between $100,000 (£72,500) and $500,000 (£362,000).

At that time, Mr Turpin worked as an engineer at Northrop Grumman and earned $140,00 (£100,000) annually and his wife was a homemaker, records showed.

Their bankruptcy lawyer, Ivan Trahan, said he never met the children but the couple “spoke about them highly”.

“We remember them as a very nice couple,” Mr Trahan said, adding that Louise Turpin told him the family loved Disneyland and visited often.

The family’s Facebook page shows numerous photos of them, apparently happy and smiling, some from Disneyland and others from events where David and Louise Turpin renewed their vows.

The couple, who got married when Mrs Turpin was 16, renewed their vows in 2016 at the Elvis Chapel in downtown Las Vegas. The service was conducted by an Elvis impersonator.

Pictures on Facebook show the 13 children in matching outfits for the boys and the girls.

The 10 girls are all dressed in pink dresses with white tights and white shoes, while the boys are dressed in suits with purple ties - and have bowl haircuts just like their father.

Renewing their vows in the Elvis Chapel was a tradition as they also did it in 2013 with the same Elvis imper- sonator. The children were dressed in the same outfits as in the 2016 ceremony.

Elvis impersonator Kent Ripley, who carried out the services, said the news came as a shock to him.

“I’m still disturbed,” he said. “This is a sad day for everybody, especially the children, I mean they were sitting right around here three different times “They seemed to care about each other and care about the kids.”