A freshman at a south China university has been detained for taking candid photos of female students and posting them on the Internet, police said on Wednesday.

The unnamed male student at Hainan Normal University in the southern island province took 453 photos of women in a dormitory building opposite to his own. He then posted 287 shots on the net, said police officer Liao Xude of the Haikou public security bureau.

The incident reminded Chinese of the scandal of sexually-explicit photos of Hong Kong celebrities earlier this year. The images soon hit headlines in both cyberspace and newspapers.

Tens of thousands of netizens posted remarks on the student snapper incident on major Chinese websites, denouncing the act and urging punishment.

A security official surnamed Li at the university in Hainan Province told Xinhua that the student "did it just for fun and had not expected such an impact."

Li said 25 girl students were photographed.

Police received a report from a student about the incident on June 23 after she happened to see photos of herself and many others on a website. The next morning, the man posted another batch of photos from an Internet bar.

Local police located the man after finding out the IP address used for uploading the photos. He faced five to 10 days detainment over privacy infringement.

The university had earlier been offering a 20,000 yuan (2,915 US dollars) reward for clues to find the offender.

On Jan. 27, sex photos featuring Hong Kong entertainer Edison Chen began to appear on the Internet. They were reportedly copied by a computer repair shop assistant from a faulty laptop believed to belong to the actor.

On Feb. 21, Chen made a public apology and announced he would quit the Hong Kong entertainment industry.

(Xinhua News Agency July 2, 2008)