Beijing, Jan 26 (IANS): Ten Communist party officials in China have been sacked for appearing in sex videos.

The mass sacking was reported in southwest China's Chongqing municipality, Xinhua reported.

Ten officials, almost all of them district-level Communist Party of China leaders, were removed from their posts for allegedly appearing in the videos, municipal authorities were quoted as saying.

The announcement ended months of online speculation that a number of local officials had been involved in the scandal.

The case emerged in November after a sex video featuring one official later said to be CPC secretary of Chongqing's Beibei district Lei Zhengfu went viral online.

Police in Chongqing broke up a criminal ring suspected of using secretly filmed sex videos to extort officials.

The authorities found that the ring had hired women to seduce local officials, covertly filmed their sexual acts and used the videos as tools of extortion to get government contracts.