A man has been detained in southwest China's Guizhou Province for starting a rumor about a prison break that went viral online, local police said Tuesday.

The man surnamed Zhang will be held in police custody for three days.

On Saturday, Zhang alleged on Tencent Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging service, that six inmates escaped from a prison in less than one month. He also claimed that they killed 78 women and raped 16 others in the city of Guiyang, Guizhou's capital.

Police in Guiyang said they did not receive any reports related to these claims.

Police went to the city of Zunyi, where Zhang lives, and arrested him.

Zhang has confessed to fabricating the information.

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