A finance official in Ansai county, Shaanxi province, was detained on Monday on suspicion of embezzling more than 2 million yuan ($320,230) over a two-year period, Xi'an Evening News reported on Wednesday.

The official surnamed Zhang was director of the county's Jianhua town finance office.

He was reported to have misappropriated public funds for gambling on Feb 9.

The county's discipline watchdog started an investigation into the case immediately.

Investigations showed that Zhang embezzled 2.13 million yuan in public funds for gambling from Dec 26, 2010 to Oct 20, 2012.