Beijing police have detained three people working at Baidu Inc, the leading Chinese language Internet search provider, over allegations that they abused their positions and deleted forum posts in return for money.

The company confirmed that it had sacked the accused employees, along with a fourth person, who has not been included in the police investigation.

Baidu's professional ethics committee sent an e-mail to more than 16,000 staff members on Aug 1, saying four workers had made money by deleting posts on online forums under requests from other corporations.