Police here have detained a former employee of a Coca-Cola bottling plant, whom they accused of corruption and bribery.

The detention of the employee from the Shanghai Shen-Mei Beverage and Food Company, a bottling plant partly owned by Coca-Cola, was reported over the weekend by China’s state-run news media, which said the employee took about $1.5 million in bribes.

A spokesman for Coca-Cola, Kenth Kaerhoeg, confirmed on Sunday that a female middle manager at the plant was detained by Shanghai police this year and then dismissed by the bottling company.

Mr. Kaerhoeg declined to give further details about the case, but he said Coca-Cola was cooperating with the investigation.

Calls to Shen-Mei, in which Coca-Cola has a minority stake, went unanswered on Sunday and Shanghai police officials could not be reached for comment.

The detention is the second prominent bribery case this year involving a global company operating in China.

In July, four Shanghai-based employees of the British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, including an Australian citizen, were detained and later formally charged with corruption and bribery.

That case emerged after tense iron ore negotiations between Rio Tinto and Chinese steel makers and after Rio Tinto scrapped a deal with a big Chinese company, leading some analysts to speculate that it was partly politically motivated.

Rio Tinto has strongly denied its Shanghai employees were involved in bribery or corruption. Chinese officials have insisted the case is not politically motivated.

By David Barboza. Read more about the details.