From left: Henry Cavill, Christopher McQuarrie, Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg attend a press event for Mission: Impossible - Fallout in Beijing on Wednesday. Photo: Li Hao/GT

Chinese fans went into a panic after a photo with the logo "BBC news" began circulating that said US star Tom Cruise "died" during an accident while filming. Fortunately, the hashtag Tom Cruise Has Died, which got 8.6 views on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo, turned out to be a hoax that seems to have originated from a YouTube channel named "trending today," which previously has released videos claiming other celebrities such as Justin Beiber and Celine Dion had also "died."

The snapshot of the video with the words "US actor 'Tom Cruise' died while filming a scene for 'Mission Impossible 7' involving an explosion on an inflatable boat" began going viral on Thursday morning. Many Chinese fans expressed their shock and anger after they discovered they were fooled by the fake news. 

"I was stunned when I heard the news. I searched the official website of the BBC, and could not find the news. It turned out to be a YouTube channel making fake news to fool us. I am so sick of the channel," one Chinese netizen commented on Sina Weibo. 

"Why does YouTube still keep this annoying trouble-maker? They should block the channel immediately," another Chinese netizen commented on Sina Weibo. 

The video together with three others including "Justin Bieber were killed in a fatal car crash," "Singer Legend Celine Dion dead at 51" and "'Drake' Canadian artist is dead after an early morning shooting in North Oshawa" are still available on YouTube. 

"No wonder people abroad often believe some fake videos and news that smear China. They are really good at editing vivid fake videos," one Chinese netizen wrote on Sina Weibo.