国内英语新闻:Schoolmaster, official face child molestation charges

HAIKOU, May 14 (Xinhua) -- A schoolmaster and a government official in south China's Hainan Province were suspected to have molested children after their alleged "inappropriate behavior" with female pupils in hotels, local police said Tuesday.

Ye Qing, a senior officer with the Public Security Bureau of Wanning City, said that according to the current evidence police have collected, the two suspects were facing child molestation charges.

The bureau has asked for official arrest warrants for the two men from prosecutors.

The schoolmaster, surnamed Chen, spent a night on May 8 with four girls in a hotel in Wanning, 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 different 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 Monday. 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.