Croatia raids 190 homes in child pornography swoop

ZAGREB (Reuters) - Croatian police have raided almost 200 homes in what police said could be the biggest crackdown to date on paedophiles and child pornography users.

The operation, codenamed Sledgehammer, was part of international police efforts to break child pornography rings.

"Such actions are always coordinated with international police. This one is probably the biggest we've had here," a police spokesman said on Thursday.

He said police had launched raids on suspects' homes across the country, after monitoring child pornography Web pages accessed by Croatian Internet users.

"We have made 190 raids ... and confiscated loads of computers," the spokesman said.

Croatian law gives up to 10 years in prison for child pornography.

(Reporting by Zoran Radosavljevic, Editing by Elizabeth Piper)