South China police found several tons of melamine-contaminated candies

Chinese police have seized almost 20 tonnes of candies tainted with melamine, state media said on Thursday, an industrial chemical at the centre of a scandal in 2008 in which six infants died and thousands were made ill.

Police in the southern province of Guangdong made the discovery during a sweep of food producers and have detained the manager of the factory that produced it, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

As the case was a complex one that involved other parts of the country, authorities had mobilised in 12 provinces to track down other people involved in its production, Xinhua added, without providing other details. (MTI)