People forcing disabled children to beg in a county in east China's Anhui Province have 10 days to turn themselves in or face harsh penalties from authorities, an official of Taihe county said on Wednesday.

The move, coinciding with a nationwide online campaign to crack down on child begging, came following media reports highlighting the area, where incidents of child begging have been an alarming trend.

Two disabled children have been rescued and five suspects detained in the county's Gongji town as a result of the crackdown, which started on Feb. 6 and was carried out by 160 policemen and government officials, said Zhang Junguo, a local publicity official of the county.

However, no abuse of the rescued children has been found, Zhang stressed.

Gong Chunfeng, 61, was detained for taking a 10-year-old disabled boy to beg in Central China's Hunan province. Gong told police he has paid the boy's family 4,000 yuan (US$610) every year since 2006.

The government of Gongji town released a circular on Monday informing local residents that forcing children under the age of 14 or juveniles with disabilities to beg is illegal and they will face severe punishment if caught.

"The high mobility of the labor force creates difficulties for us to know what the migrant workers are actually doing outside, so we encourage people to make reports if they suspect their neighbors or people in the their villages of doing this nasty business," Zhang told China Daily.

Taihe county has a population of 1.7 million, with more than 400,000 people flowing into the major cities to work, Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post reported.