Police in Israel have detained eight members of an American Christian cult, together with six children, saying they were planning acts of violence in Jerusalem.

Police said the group wanted to act in advance of the millennium, in the belief that they would hasten the second coming of Jesus when some Christians believe Jesus will return to Earth.

One report said they planned to provoke a violent shoot-out with the police; another that they planned to commit suicide.

The detainees have been identified as members of a group called Concerned Christians.

Around sixty members of the group abandoned their jobs and homes in the United States several months ago amid reports that they had gone to Israel.

Their leader, Monte Kim Miller, has forecast that he will die in Jerusalem this year.