Beijing, June 15 (Reuters): As many as 1,000 children may have been sold into slave labour in central China, enduring maiming and brutality in primitive brick kilns, state media said today amid an expanding scandal about official neglect.

The owners ran the prison-like kilns in Shanxi and Henan provinces with fierce dogs and thugs who beat the children at will, state television said. One accidentally killed a child with a shovel and buried the body at night, it said.

An army of 35,000 policemen in central China had so far rescued 468 people after checking 7,500 kilns, Xinhua news agency said.

As many as 120 suspects had been arrested.