A traffic police instructor in Fenghuang county, Hunan Province, has been dismissed after two traffic police officers he had instructed were arrested on suspicion of raping a teenage girl.

A statement issued Sunday by authorities in the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture, which has jurisdiction over Fenghuang, said Liu Yun, the instructor, had been relieved of his duties but did not give a specific reason for the decision.

Liu was responsible for educating and managing traffic police officers in Fenghuang county.

The 16-year-old victim, surnamed Qiu, originally from Yangxin, Hubei Province, traveled to Fenghuang on September 4 and was allegedly molested in a hotel by several men she knew through her local friends, until she broke away from the group and jumped out of the building, the local public security bureau said last Monday. Qiu later died from injuries sustained in the fall.

Police later arrested five people, including the two traffic police, with the approval of the Fenghuang procuratorate.

An official surnamed Huang from the Fenghuang Publicity Department told the Hubei-based Chutian Metropolis Daily Saturday that a news conference was scheduled for Sunday to release more information on the case. However, no conference was held.

Feng Wentao, the victim's brother-in-law, told the Global Times Sunday that Qiu's family decided to turn to the Hunan Provincial Public Security Department to deal with the case.