SHANGHAI, June 27 -- HUBEI police caught two of the eight foremen wanted for running slave brick kilns in North China, one day after a 10,000 yuan (US$1,300) reward was posted for the capture of each of the B-level class suspects, a newspaper said yesterday.

Ke Changfu, 35, was arrested at a remote construction site in the mountains near Dingjiaying Town in Shiyan City in Hubei Province, according to the Shiyan Evening News.

Ke was said to have been rude to workers and often beat them at an illegal brick kiln in Yixian County, Shanxi Province, the report said.

Ke escaped from Shanxi police on June 16 and hid at the construction site where he was arrested. He reportedly was trying to make money to finance his future fugitive life.

Shiyan police officers were informed of Ke's whereabouts on Monday morning and traveled to the town about 11am.

Police approached Ke cautiously because they were afraid he would escape into a remote forest area.

At about 6pm, Ke was nabbed inside a dormitory when he was waiting for a meeting on work safety to start. The meeting was a trap.

Wang Zihong, 29, another of the wanted men, was arrested at a railway station in Shiyan on Saturday night.

Wang drew the attention of station police and failed to satisfy their inquiries.

He had a ticket to Guangzhou that night.

Ke and Wang were the second and third suspects that have been arrested in Shiyan City over the slave scandal. Heng Tinghan, the first B-level wanted suspect in the case, was caught on June 16.

Police promised 10,000 yuan for information leading to the arrest of each of the eight foremen suspected of beating and forcing enslaved people to work in brick kilns in Shanxi.

Authorities in Shanxi said earlier that at least 55 people were being investigated in 15 separate cases of slavery at brick kilns, where at least hundreds of children and adults were forced to work long hours in grueling conditions without pay.

Now 18 were on the run and six were on the wanted list.

Since news of the abuse broke last month, more than 8,000 kilns and small coal mines in Shanxi and Henan have been raided, with 591 workers, including 51 children, being freed, Xinhua reported. In Shanxi, police said 359 people had been freed.

Premier Wen Jiabao has ordered a thorough probe.

The other wanted foremen were identified as Chen Zhiming, Zhou Qiusheng, Zhang Zhenjiang, Yao Haitao, Ke Changjiang and Wang Ziguo.