China executed a school headmaster in north-west Gansu province for raping and sexually harassing 39 girls in the last 18 years.

The teacher Luo Yanlin, 48 who worked at three primary schools in Jingning County was executed in Gansu province on Wednesday. He sexually assaulted girls between seven and 14 years between 1988 and 2006, Shanghai Daily reported.

"Luo's crimes have seriously harmed the young girls' mental and physical health, disturbed normal teaching and had an extremely negative impact on society," the court said.

The dreaded teacher used to lure the children into his office on pretext of tutoring them before outraging their modesty.

Luo raped several of the girls over the same period and raped one repeatedly through six years of primary schooling. He raped a nine-year-old granddaughter, the Pingliang City Intermediate People's Court said.

His crimes were exposed on August 14, 2006 when two former victims, both of whom were college students then, informed police about the crimes.

Zhang, one of the victims told police that the teacher had raped them more than 10 times when they were aged only 12.

Luo was arrested and charged with raping and molesting children. He was sentenced to death on July 4, 2007.

In 2007, another teacher in Chinese Gansu province was sentenced to death for raping 18 students.