Police of Anhui Province have rescued seven kidnapped babies in a four-month-long investigation and captured seven suspects of a 16-member gang, the local public security authority said Thursday.

Family planning officers found a baby girl in a rural family in Qianshan County in Anqing City in August.

Police found out that the infertile couple bought the baby with16,000 yuan (2,342 U.S. dollars) from a 16-member gang, said the public security bureau of Qianshan.

Further investigations in Hubei Province and Anhui led to the capture of seven gang members and rescue of seven children aged between 4 months to 14 years.

Suspects confessed that they had abducted the children mainly in Hubei and sold them to rural families in the remote mountainous areas of Anhui.

Police are still hunting for other members of the child trafficking gang.