Pimps in Romania have started putting up official looking road signs to give drivers plenty of warning there are prostitutes ahead.

The idea is that potential customers will not drive past before realising they could have stopped and engaged the services of one of the girls at the roadside.

But police in Romania are not amused and say the official looking signs that show a girl in a red dress are illegal and breach road safety rules.

The signs first started appearing alongside the Olt Valley Road running through the centre of the country, and spread from there.

Lucian Tarnu head of the police in Sibiu county told the Evenimentul Zilei daily: "These signs are illegal and whoever put them up will be fined.

"They are meant to attract male drivers looking for a woman. We had to remove some a few months ago but now there's even more - and the new ones have been set in concrete."