Six suspects arrested for the murder of a woman in a McDonald's outlet in China's Zhaoyuan city were discovered to be members of a heretic cult, according to local police.

The woman, surnamed Wu, was beaten to death at a McDonald's outlet in Zhaoyuan, Shandong on Wednesday night. According to police, the suspects had tried to recruit her to join their sect. When the victim refused to give her telephone number, the suspects had proceeded to beat her to death.

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The suspects were identified as Zhang Lidong, his 2 daughters, his son and 2 women surnamed Zhang and Lyu. With the exception of Zhang's son who is still underage, the five suspects are currently being held in custody on charges of intentional homicide.

The minor, according to police, will be dealt with separately.

A search of Zhang Lidong's house found a number of books and materials from the heretic sect, Quannengshen.

Quannengshen or "All Powerful Spirit" was founded in the early 90s in Heilongjiang province. The group commits illegal activities based on distorted readings of the Christian Bible. In 1995, the government had classified then as an "evil cult" and had thus, banned it, according to an article in The Independent.

Zhang revealed the main motive for killing their victim in an interview with state broadcaster, CCTV.  He described the woman as "evil" and had to be beaten to death. He also mentioned that he wasn't afraid of the law.

Wang Shuli, an expert on religion, told reporters that the incident had brought to light the nature of cult-related activities.

"They are not religions and they are anti-religion and anti-human," he said.

He urged authorities to launch an investigation on the cult's activities and pushed for the arrest of cult members found to have committed illegal acts.

Meanwhile, the McDonald's outlet where the crime had taken place released a statement offering its condolences to the victim's family and expressed concern over members of their staff who had gotten injured while trying to interfere on the victim's behalf.

TagsQuannengshen, heretic, cult, sect, illegal religious group, Zhang Lidong, murder in mcdonald's, zhaoyuan, shandong, local crime, beat to death, Murder