Shanghai, China - Authorities in northern China detained five American church workers in raids on unofficial Protestant church groups, a U.S.-based monitoring group said Thursday.
Four Americans, including a married couple, were held after authorities broke up a Christian fellowship service Monday in Luoyang in Henan province, about 460 miles southwest of Beijing, the China Aid Association said.
Police also detained 27 Chinese citizens in the raid.
Another American was detained by plainclothes officers while walking in the nearby city of Yichuan, said Wan Dagan, a pastor in the unofficial church whose comments were in a news release from the Texas-based group.
The group said the Americans apparently were traveling together, but it said it did not have their names. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said officials were checking the report.
An officer reached by phone at the publicity department of the Luoyang police said he had no information on the report. A police spokeswoman in Yichuan also said she had not heard of such a case. Both officers refused to identify themselves.
China's officially atheistic communist government allows worship only in tightly controlled state churches. Those who meet outside are frequently harassed, fined and sometimes sent to labor camps.
Nevertheless, up to 50 million Chinese are believed to worship in unofficial Protestant congregations, called "house churches" since meetings often take place in private homes.
Another 10 million followers are claimed by the official Protestant church, known as the "Three-Self Patriotic Movement."
Millions more Roman Catholic Chinese belong to unofficial churches loyal to the Vatican.