ZHENGZHOU, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- A suspect in a knife attack on students at an elementary school on Friday in central China's Henan Province has been arrested. 
 
 The Guangshan County People's Procuratorate confirmed on Monday that it has ratified the arrest of Min Yongjun on a charge of jeopardizing public security in an incident in which more than 20 children and an elderly villager were injured. 
 
 According to police, Min Yongjun (previously reported as Min Yingjun) is thought to have burst into an elderly woman's house near the elementary school of Chenpeng village in Guangshan county, at around 7 a.m. on Friday, hitting her and stabbing her with a kitchen knife he picked up in the house. Min then rushed to the school, and allegedly knifed 23 students, before being subdued by teachers and police. 
 
 Previous reports had said 22 students were injured. However, police found that another youngster had escaped and run home after being stabbed. 
 
 Initial police investigation found Min, a long-term epilepsy sufferer, had been strongly psychologically affected by rumors of the upcoming end of the world predicted by ancient prophecy. December 21 marks the conclusion of a 5,125-year-long Mayan calendar, a point associated with the apocalypse. 
 
 His motives for the attack are still under further investigation. 
 
 Rao Mingsheng, health director for Guangshan, said on Monday that none of the people injured in the attack were currently in a critical condition. Some remained locally hospitalized, while others have been transferred to bigger hospitals in Xinyang City of Henan Province, and Wuhan, capital of central Hubei Province. 
 
 Most of the students sustained head injuries or cuts to their fingers or ears, and required immediate surgery. 
 
 Authorities in Xinyang City, which administers Guangshan, have ordered reinforced patrols near schools in the city to defend against attacks targeting teachers and students. 
 
 Witnesses said that Min burst into the school building and randomly hacked at students as he ran from the first floor to the third floor. 
 
 Most of the students in the village school are "left-behind" children, whose parents work as migrant workers in cities. 
 
 "The injured children only had grandparents or relatives by their sides. Many of the senior people fainted at seeing their kids horribly wounded," said the mother of a five-year-old student in the school. 
 
 Wei Yuegen, grandfather of Wei Xiang, a six-year-old victim, said the boy was bathed in blood on his head and clothes when he saw him. 
 
 "I did not recognize my grandson until he called me when I arrived at the entrance of the school, where everybody was crying," the elderly man recalled. 
 
 The boy, who suffered a skull fracture, was among the most severely wounded. 
 
 Few people were seen on the streets in the impoverished village after the accident. 
 
 Some villagers told Xinhua that Min was a familiar face, as he was from Zoupeng, a neighboring village only 6 km away. 
 
 Villagers in Min's hometown were shocked at Friday's atrocity, and could not understand how Min may have executed the attack. 
 
 Min was described as outspoken man with an illness. He has two daughters, with the eldest also of elementary school age. His wife was said to have sought city jobs for many years, spending little time at home. 
 
 The Guangshan county government has declined media interviews and obstructed reporters from interviewing the school and hospitals. 
 
 The government's lack of transparency in handling the incident has triggered condemnation on the Internet. 
 
 Local officials have been criticized for perceived irresponsible and indifferent attitudes toward the tragedy. 
 
 The village head of Chenpeng told Xinhua by phone that he was out of the village for "private business," and could not comment the incident. 
 
 An official with the county's education department was found playing computer card games when Xinhua reporters called at his office for an interview on the school attack. ||||| Chinese police have detained more than 500 people from a fringe Christian group for spreading rumors about the world's impending end, state media reported Tuesday. 
 
 In western China's Qinghai province alone, police arrested more than 400 members from the religious cult group, state-run China Central Television said Tuesday. 
 
 Police seized leaflets, video discs, books and other apocalyptic materials in the recent arrests of more than 500 people across eight provinces and regions, from the prosperous east coast to less developed western China, state media reports said. 
 
 The detentions come ahead of Friday, Dec. 21 _ a date some say the Mayans prophesized would be the end of the world and which was the subject of the apocalyptic movie "2012." 
 
 Those detained are reported to be members of the group Almighty God, which is also called Eastern Lightning, after a phrase from the Bible's Book of Matthew. Widely regarded as a heretical Christian sect, the group preaches that Jesus has reappeared as a woman in central China. It has been accused of targeting Christians, kidnapping and beating them to force conversions. 
 
 Chinese society has been in tumult as decades of rapid free-market economic growth discredit communist ideology, loosen social controls and pull hundreds of millions from the countryside to the cities. Into the spiritual void have rushed traditional Buddhist groups and Daoist practices, as well as evangelical Christian churches and other spiritual groups, some with unorthodox and apocalyptic visions. 
 
 Eastern Lightning first appeared around 20 years ago, and the official Xinhua News Agency said that its members had "recently latched on to the Mayan doomsday prophesy to predict that the sun will not shine and electricity will not work for three days beginning on Dec. 21." 
 
 A public notice on the web site of Qinghai provincial government said local police are waging a "severe crackdown" on the group described as a cult with "strong political penchants." The government urged the public to inform the police of any illegal propaganda, gathering and preaching by the group. 
 
 The CCTV report called the group a cult and accused it of attacking the party and the government, though it did not give any specifics. 
 
 The state-run Huashang website last week, citing local authorities, reported that the group is urging followers to "exterminate the great red dragon" _ a reference to the Communist Party _ "and found a country under the rule of Almighty God."
– In the US, we mostly laugh off the Mayan-predicted apocalypse that will probably eradicate us all in a few days. But in China, it's serious business. Authorities there have now arrested more than 500 members of the banned Christian "Almighty God" cult for allegedly spreading doomsday prophesies, the AP reports. Police also seized leaflets, DVDs, books, and other materials warning of the impending apocalypse. The cult believes that the "sun will not shine and electricity will not work for three days beginning on December 21," the state-run Xinhua news service reported. Then again, perhaps China has good reason to try to clamp down on the rumors; according to another report, such prophesies were a motivating factor in the knife attack on 23 children at an elementary school on Friday. The suspected slasher, identified as Min Yongjun, "had been strongly psychologically affected by rumors of the upcoming end of the world," Xinhua reported. If you are similarly being psychologically affected, we urge you to calm down and read this or this.