Police in an east China city have detained a young woman who allegedly spread hoax warnings of an imminent earthquake.

The woman was charged with disturbing public order, said a spokesperson of the municipal security bureau of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province,Tuesday.

On Sunday night, police found an Internet posting that said, "There will be a major earthquake in Nanjing City in the near future, we should be prepared for it."

After an investigation, they identified the woman who allegedly posted the hoax warning and detained her at about 9 p.m. Monday.

The woman surnamed Ding, aged 25, ran a fashionable photography center in the city, said the spokesperson.

Ding allegedly said that at around 7 p.m. Sunday, she saw a posting on her friend's private online space with the title of "Experts forecast Nanjing will be jolted by earthquake."

Ding allegedly told police that the posting reminded her of the horrible scenes in the Hollywood blockbuster 2012, the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that hit Yushu prefecture of Qinghai Province April 14 and of recent abnormal weather in Nanjing.

Out of fear, she relayed the posting to a leading Chinese social network website named Xicihutong, and the posting quickly found public attention, said the spokesperson.

Only when people pointed out untrue information in the posting did Ding realize it was a hoax.

The police traced the rumour to a recent online posting about a possible quake in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. The posting Ding relayed was a copy of the "Shaanxi quake" posting, said the spokesperson.

Ding would remain in custody for at least three days, the spokesperson said.