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Police believe they have smashed what could be Britain’s biggest child-sex ring.

Six men have been arrested so far and officers have identified almost 50 alleged victims of rape, abuse and sex slavery aged as young as 12.

Detectives fear those numbers could easily reach more than 100 in a case potentially bigger than the Rochdale grooming scandal.

The men suspected of carrying out the abuse are of various nationalities, a source said.

Police originally believed they were dealing with two separate rings operating in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

But they now suspect a large gang was targeting vulnerable youngsters across the city.

Officers have already taken statements from 10 girls but there are a further 37 who they think were abused and are waiting to interview.

The number of alleged victims already equals the toll of the previous worst child sex ring uncovered. That was in Rochdale last year, where a gang of Asian men abused 47 victims from troubled backgrounds.

Our source said: “The investigation has only just started, but this could be the worst child sex slave ring the ­country has seen so far.

“Police and social workers are doing their utmost to identify other ­perpetrators and victims but it is too early to say how many there could be.

“The men are suspected of targeting vulnerable girls in care or outside schools for grooming.

“They would allegedly give them booze, drugs or money before using them as sex slaves.”

The arrests were made after two Cambridgeshire police operations, codenamed Earl and Jardine, were launched into child grooming in Peterborough in the wake of the Rochdale scandal.

A damning Ofsted report 18 months ago had found the city’s ­council had failed to ­adequately protect vulnerable ­children.

The “serious deficiencies” discovered led to the resignation of the city’s director of Children’s Services John Richards.

The city councillor in charge of Children’s Services, Sheila Scott, said she was told of the ­allegations at the start of the year – and that the council backed the police investigation.

A council source said: “You have a horror this abuse may be happening on your patch, but huge relief that it has been found out. The allegations are appalling.”

All six men suspected of grooming the youngsters are on bail and have not been charged.

The nine men convicted in the Rochdale scandal were given sentences from four to 19 years for plying girls as young as 10 with booze and drugs before abusing them between 2008 and 2009. The judge said they treated their victims “as though they were worthless and beyond respect”.

In 2010 five men from Rotherham were jailed after being found guilty of grooming young girls for sex. Nine men were jailed for abusing 27 girls in Derby.