Man detained for molesting underage girls in Shanghai

A man in Shanghai has been detained on suspicion of molesting three underage girls in a local kindergarten, police said on Wednesday.

The man, surnamed Zhang, a migrant worker in Shanghai, was suspected of luring the girls into Changxiangyishu Kindergarten in Yangpu District and molesting them there on Saturday, police said. The girls, two of whom are aged five and the other six, are all children of migrant workers living in the area.

Zhang, who is not a kindergarten employee, was covering his wife's duties on Saturday. His wife, a cook at the kindergarten, was at home taking care of their child, according to the local bureau of education.

The case is still under investigation.

China has seen a spate of assaults on children, triggering outrage and raising concerns about the safety of minors.

In May 2013, a primary school headmaster and a government employee in south China's Hainan Province were detained by police on suspicion of sexually assaulting six female students.

Two months later, a 62-year-old primary school teacher in east China's Jiangxi Province was sentenced to 14 years in prison for molesting seven second grade girls and infecting six of them with STDs.