China has detained the head of Beijing's state security bureau as part of an investigation into powerful ex-domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang.

Liang Ke, director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of State Security, was taken into custody last month by the anti-corruption watchdog. State media on Friday announced that Liang had been replaced. Sources told reporters last month that investigators had questioned more than a dozen senior officials about their links to Zhou. President Xi Jinping has launched a major crackdown on corruption.