ZHENGZHOU, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Police from central China's Henan Province say they have rescued 217 people, including 29 children, who had been working as 'slaves' in brick kilns in the province.

    Police said they have detained 120 suspects including 13 in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital.

    More than 35,000 police were dispatched to check 7,500 kilns in Henan during a crackdown between June 9 and 12.

    In the area around Xinxiang, north of Zhengzhou, police raided 20 brick kilns on Saturday and rescued 23 people including 16 children.

    Laborers had been enticed or kidnapped and transported to the kilns by human traffickers. Upon arrival they were beaten, starved and forced to work long hours without pay.

    In the past two weeks, Chinese media have exposed the plight of children held captive in brick kilns in neighboring Shanxi Province and photos of distraught parents have appeared in the press.

    Yang Aizhi, a 46-year-old mother, was one of the people who alerted the public to scandal.

    Her 16-year-old son went missing on March 8 and she has been searching for him ever since. On her travels she heard that the child might have been kidnapped and forced to work at kilns in Shanxi.

    Yang went to more than 100 kilns in Shanxi and discovered that "most kilns were forcing children to do hard labor," she was quoted as saying in Southern Weekly. Some children were still wearing their school uniforms.

    When the children were too tired to push carts, they were whipped by taskmasters, said Yang.

    Yang tried to rescue some of the children but was threatened by kiln owners. She has yet to find her son.

    Yang and other parents who suspect their children have been kidnapped and forced to work in illegal kilns told their story to a TV station in Zhengzhou in early May.

    Zhang Wenlong, 17, called the kiln he had worked at as "prison". He was rescued from a kiln in Hongtong, Shanxi Province.

    Zhang says he was abducted in March from the Zhengzhou Railway Station and worked at a kiln for three months until he burned his hand on bricks that had not yet cooled.

    Zhang was watched by thugs and six ferocious dogs, making it impossible to escape.

    His taskmaster refused him hospital treatment but provided medicines that had expired.

    Zhang was found and rescued by local police in late May.

    Police have set up a special task force in Henan to investigate the scandal.

    Qin Yuhai, vice governor and police chief of Henan, said "we must do everything we can to fight human trafficking and rescue those being held captive."

    Shanxi police have also launched a crackdown on slavery at illegal brick kilns and rescued a number of people.