A man in Northwest China's Gansu province was executed Thursday for the rape and sexual abuse of 26 children, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said.

Li Jishun, a former primary school teacher, was put to death by the Intermediate People's Court of Tianshui City after the SPC approved the death penalty.

Li was found by the court to have raped or sexually abused 26 girls aged from 4 to 11 when he was a teacher from 2011 to 2012. He took advantage of those who were both childish and timid and committed his acts in dormitories or classrooms.

Considering the harm Li caused to the girls concerned and the extremely negative social impact, Li was given the heaviest punishment, said a judge from the SPC.

The SPC also published the details of four other cases involving sexual abuse of minors. In one case, a man raped five girls in a school dormitory. He was given a death sentence reprieved for two years.

The SPC said child sexual abuse cases are on the rise in recent years, with 7,145 such cases being handled by courts across the country from 2012 to 2014.