WUHAN - A primary school teacher suspected of raping several girls in central China's Hubei Province has been detained, local police said Tuesday.

Since July the public security bureau of Yunxi County, Shiyan City, received several reports that a male teacher surnamed Ding raped several female pupils at a primary school in Guanyin Town.

Ding, 61, frequently raped several girls aged between eight to nine beginning in September 2013. He said he would help examine the pupils' homework, asked them to come to his dormitory, and raped them, the bureau said.

He fled to the neighboring Shaanxi Province after the case was exposed, and was detained by the police on Tuesday. The bureau said investigation into the case is under way, providing no further details.

China has had a string of child molestation cases involving teachers in recent years.

In July, a primary school teacher was detained in southwest China's Yunnan Province for molesting several girls.

In April, a court in east China's Anhui Province sentenced a school teacher to death for raping five schoolgirls and molesting six others.

The country has tightened crackdown on such crimes. The Supreme People's Procuratorate announced in May that China charged a total of 8,069 people with child molestation from 2010 to 2013.