WASHINGTON (TIP): A woman missing since August was found on Thursday chained up “like a dog” in a padlocked metal container in rural South Carolina, officials said. Kala Brown, 30, was discovered inside a shipping container after police heard a banging sound when they arrived at a property in the town of Woodruff with a search warrant.

Todd Kohlhepp, a registered sex offender who owned the property, was arrested, CNN and WYFF reported.

“It was pretty emotional, to say the least, when she was found. Especially, you know, when she was chained like a dog,” Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright told WYFF, a local affiliate of NBC.

“She had a chain around her neck. It’s only by God’s grace we found that little girl alive,” Wright added.

The officers approached the container after hearing the banging and knocked on the side of it.

Brown shouted “Help me! Get me out of here!”, Wright told CNN separately.

Brown told officers she had been in the container for two months. Her boyfriend, Charles Carver, who has also been missing since August, remains unaccounted for. (AFP)