RUTHLESS gangs are snatching orphaned babies from Chinas earthquake zone and selling them for £100.

The callous crooks are scouring hospitals and shelters in the worst-affected areas of devastated Sichuan province.

Targeted ... baby pulled
from quake

Police in Jiangyou city arrested one gang of five women who stole four tiny girls and a boy all under a year old.

And 36 other cases of kidnapped tots and children have been reported in the same city.

The gang of women admitted intending to sell the babies for £100 to rogue traders, who in turn would have sold them at a fat profit to childless couples desperate for kids.

Asleep

Chinas controversial one-baby rules introduced in 1979 to curb a population explosion allow couples to have a single child.

Boys are usually favoured to keep the family line going.

The womens gang was caught when a suspicious hotel boss told cops they had checked in with babies who were all soundly asleep.

When police raided their rooms they found baby formula and sleeping pills used to sedate the tots.

Senior policeman Zhao Yonggang described them as despicable and utterly shameless.

He told The Sun: They will be punished severely. They could get life and even the death penalty cannot be ruled out.

The saved babies are being kept in a safe house in Jiangyou.

Police are using DNA testing to try to match them to relatives who survived the quake, which is feared to have killed 90,000 a fortnight ago.

Aftershocks demolished 420,000 houses and injured dozens in Sichuan yesterday.