A day before the gruesome shooting of 27 people in Sandy Hook Elementary School happened in Connecticut, a similar incident happened in Guangshan county, Henan province in China, although the assailant used a knife in stabbing 22 school children.

The attacker, identified by reports as Min Yongjun, was allegedly unstable over fears of the world coming to an end, as mistakenly interpreted by some groups of the Mayan New Year on Dec 21.

Similar to the Connecticut massacre, Mr Min, 36, first entered an older woman's house on Friday morning, stabbed an 84-yer-old female and then proceeded to the Chengpeng PrimaryVillage School where he used the stolen knife to slash 22 middle-school students

Adam Lanza, the killer in the Connecticut attack, first shot his mother Nancy and then went to the Sandy Hook Elementary School where he shot indiscriminately at the students of his mother. Some pupils were spared because a teacher hid them in a bathroom and closets.

In the China incident, which fortunately did not result in deaths, the students barricaded themselves in classrooms and hid during the attack.

The incident, which shocked China, prompted the police to warn Chinese to be wary of end-of-the-world predictions and scams, even as many residents continue to hoard candles and basic commodities over fears of 12-21-12.

"The approach of Friday of so-called doomsday, based on the ancient Mayan calendar, has caused some unrest and panic buying," reported Xinhua, the state news agency.

The spread of the doomsday rumour was partly attributed to the posting of a spoof video by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard who confirmed that the Mayan prediction would come true. Her spoof video was posted over Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter.

The Guangshan country government said on Monday that Mr Min will be subjected to testing to determine his psychological condition. He fled after the stabbing, but was caught and could face the death penalty.

Because of the growing widespread fear over an apocalypse, China has detained 93 people, mostly cult members, for spreading the doomsday fear. Thirty-seven of those arrested belong to the Almighty God cult. Among the warnings made by the arrested doomsdayers were the sun won't shine and there would be no electricity for three days beginning Friday.