Schoolmaster detained for inappropriate behavior with girls

HAIKOU - A schoolmaster and a local government official have been detained for "inappropriate behavior" with female pupils in hotels in South China's Hainan province, authorities said Monday.

The schoolmaster, surnamed Chen, spent a night on May 8 with four girls in a hotel room in Wanning city, police said. Chen was the principal of the No.2 Primary School in Wanning.

The official, surnamed Feng, who worked in the city's housing administration bureau, took two other girls to another hotel in Wanning and spent a night there, according to police.

The pupils from two schools were reported missing on the afternoon of May 8.

The two suspects had no sexual relationship with the girls, the Wanning municipal public security bureau said. But one of the girls told police ?Chen had been intimate with her in the hotel.

Chen was sacked on Monday by the city's education authorities. Psychological doctors are helping the girls.

The two girls with Feng denied that he acted innappropriately.

Police and education authorities have set up investigation teams.