Police in Peru have seized more than 60 tonnes of toxic Chinese toys believed to contain lead-based products.

Officers with "Operation Toys Against Death" raided a warehouse in the capital Lima on Thursday and found boxes of Chinese-made toys that had been smuggled across the border from Chile, Walter Rivera, the city's police chief, said.

"The toys show signs of having been made with toxic substances such as lead," he said late on Friday, adding that the health ministry was analyzing the products.

The police chief said the raid in central Lima was based on police intelligence work.

There have been a number of health scares around a range of Chinese-made products in recent months, from toys painted with lead-based paints, toxic toothpaste ingredients to faulty tires, pet food and seafood.

In the United States there have been several recalls of Chinese-made toys, including 970,000 recalled last month by Fisher-Price and 1.5 million wooden "Thomas the Train" figures by RC2 Corp.

In Peru, Chinese-made toys have steadily increased their share of the market from 56.5 per cent in 2000 to 78.1 per cent last year, when the imports were valued at $45.4m, according to a study by the Catholic University's Business Centre.

Earlier this week, Peru recalled all Fisher-Price toys in the country after the distributor announced its recall in the United States.

Beijing said on Wednesday that it was spending more than $1bn dollars on strengthening the supervision of its food and drug industries.