CHANGSHA - A 60-year-old teacher has been detained by Chinese police for molesting 19 primary school girls, local authorities said Saturday.

Zhou Jianmin, to retire soon, confessed to police that he molested 19 girls, according to a government statement.

Zhou teaches science for grade three and grade four students at Bazishao Township School in Heshan District, Yiyang City of central China's Hunan Province.

Zeng Xinyue, principal of the school, has been dismissed from his post by the district education bureau.

So far 26 girls, 8 to 11 years old, have received body checks and two of them suffered from genital inflammation. The government has offered psychological consultation to the affected students.

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

In September, a 61-year-old primary school teacher was detained for raping several girls in central China's Hubei Province.

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.