Men arrested over suspected child molestation

A school principal and a local government employee have been arrested on suspicion of molesting children in south China's Hainan Province, the local procuratorate said on Wednesday.

The school principal surnamed Chen and the government employee surnamed Feng were arrested by the the People's Procuratorate in Wanning City in Hainan on Wednesday after procurators determined existing evidence suggests the two have violated the criminal law.

Police did not specify the details regarding the evidence.

Chen has been removed from his post at Wanning No. 2 Primary School while Feng was a clerk at the municipal property administration bureau.

Five pupils from Wanning Houlang Primary School and one from Wanning Siyuan Experimental School, all in the sixth grade and aged between 11 and 14, were reported missing on the afternoon of May 8.

Video footage from two hotels in the city later that night showed Chen took four girls to a room in a hotel while Feng took two girls to another hotel.

Four girls were found the next day in a rented room in the provincial capital Haikou while another two were found in the hotel two days later.

Police are further investigating the case.

Chen Xingzhang, head of the Wanning government's publicity department, vowed on Monday to get to the bottom of the case and be transparent in handling procedures.