WUHAN - A junior high school teacher in central China's Hubei Province has been detained for allegedly having sex with at least eight of his female students, local police said Wednesday.

The teacher, surnamed Wang, who taught at the Wuyang Minzu Junior High School in Hefeng County, is under investigation, an official with the county public security bureau told Xinhua.

An online post Tuesday alleged that Wang had forced sex with at least eight third-graders at the township junior high school, one of whom became pregnant.

The post stated that the victims were too scared to tell others about the abuse and the case was only exposed when a girl was revealed to be pregnant at her senior high school during the new semester that started late last month.

Hefeng is a mountainous county in western Hubei where a large number of children are "left behind" in their hometowns by parents who work as migrant workers in cities.

In China, "left behind" children in rural areas are often easy targets of sexual abuse and violence.