Five held over Shanxi quake rumors

Police in Shanxi province have detained five people over allegations they spread a rumor about a destructive earthquake that led to widespread panic across northern China last week, local authorities said yesterday.

Police said the suspects, identified as Li Jinrong, 35, Zhu Hongguo, 24, Zhang Xin, 20, Han Yueyue, 20, and Fu Wenhui, 20, confessed to spreading the rumors via the Internet and mobile phone text messages.

Tens of thousands of residents in the coal-rich province gathered valuable belongings and fled their homes early last Sunday, after word spread that a 6.0 magnitude earthquake was imminent in the cities of Jinzhong, Changzhi, Jincheng and the provincial capital of Taiyuan.