Five members of a pseudo-Christian cult in China have been sentenced for beating a woman to death in a McDonald's restaurant in Shandong province last May.

37-year-old Wu Shuoyan was with her seven-year-old son when she was approached for her phone number by one of the group. When she refused they attacked her and beat her to death. 

State media reported that Zhang Fan and her father Zhang Lidong were given death sentences. Lu Yingchun was sentenced to life imprisonment, while two other members, Zhang Hang and Zhang Qiaolian, were given 10 and seven-year jail terms.

The five were members of a secretive cult called the Church of the Almighty God. Also known as Eastern Lightning, the cult is known for violent assaults on those who try to leave it and on their families. It has also provoked riots through spreading propaganda about the coming end of the world.

The cult was founded in 1990 by former physics teacher Zhao Weishan, who now lives in the United States.