Authorities in eastern China’s Shandong province have detained a man for five days after he allegedly spread false information online about a deadly typhoon, an official statement said Tuesday.

According to police in the city of Dongying, the man had written a post on internet forum Baidu Tieba that caused “panic” among locals as Typhoon Lekima moved up the country’s east coast over the weekend. The post falsely claimed that a person had been electrocuted to death during the tropical cyclone, the official statement said.

Over the past few days, others in China’s eastern provinces have also wound up in custody for similar offenses. Police in Zhejiang arrested two men on Saturday for allegedly spreading false information about a dam collapse caused by the typhoon and the hundreds of people who went missing in its aftermath, while Jiangsu police said Sunday that they had arrested a man for disparaging people and places affected by the typhoon.

Even before Lekima, Chinese authorities have been known to punish people for insulting victims of natural disasters. In April, four people were detained for mocking firefighters killed during a forest fire in the southwestern Sichuan province. And last year, a man was detained in Sichuan for 15 days over chat messages that insulted the victims of a deadly 2008 earthquake. (Image: VCG)