Teacher arrested in Beijing nursery 'needle abuse' investigation following outrage across China

Parents shared images of marks on their children's bodies they said were caused by needles

A woman stands outside the gate at RYB Education – whose staff are being investigated by police over alleged mistreatment (REUTERS)

A teacher was arrested after staff at the nursery where she works were accused of giving drugs to children – when their parents found what they said were needle marks on their bodies.

Police detained the 22-year-old woman – only giving her surname, Liu – as part of their investigation into the allegations at RYB Education based in an upmarket area of Beijing, China.

The probe came after families claimed children as young as three were also given pills and sexually abused.

The business is part of a chain of playschools listed on Wall Street.

The purported mistreatment of at least eight children at the nursery went public when parents shared images online of marks on their children’s skin which they said were caused by needles.

Several parents who gathered outside the playschool in the Chaoyang district in protest spoke out over the claims that youngsters had been drugged there.

“Disobedient students were also forced to stand naked or were locked up in a dark room at the kindergarten,” one parent told local news site Caixin.

Police said in a post online that they had arrested the 22-year-old teacher, who they said is from the Hebei province next to Beijing, as part of their investigation.

They said in a separate post that they had also arrested a 31-year-old woman on Thursday for disrupting social order by spreading false information about the alleged kindergarten abuse.

It came after the playschool had reportedly suspended three teachers over the allegations.

Officials at RYB Education said they were co-operating with the police investigation.

“If any wrongdoing is found, we will not shake off the responsibility,” it said in a statement reported by the BBC.

“And we have also reported to the police some false accusations against us.”

RYB runs 80 kindergartens and has franchised another 175, covering 130 cities and towns in China, its website shows.

Its New York-listed shares plunged 38.4 per cent on Friday.

Additional reporting by Reuters