BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese authorities have detained around 1,000 people in a crackdown against a doomsday cult called "Almighty God" that predicts the world will end on Friday.

The government says the cult has been spreading doomsday alerts related an old Mayan calendar that some believe predicts "the end of the world" on December 21st.

Police have now detained around 1,000 members of the "Almighty God" group across seven provinces. About 400 of them were detained in the remote western province of Qinghai. China’s Xinhua news agency says they were arrested for "handing out leaflets about the apocalypse and spreading rumors".

(Source: CNTV.cn)