Chinese authorities on Monday executed two citizens convicted of beating a woman to death inside a fast-food restaurant, the New York Daily News reported.

Zhang Lidong and his daughter, Zhang Fan, were members of the "All-Powerful Spirit" group, which China considers an illegal cult. They were sentenced to death in October, five months after they killed 37-year-old Wu Shuoyan after, prosecutors argued, the woman rebuffed their efforts to recruit her.

The incident, which took place inside a McDonald's restaurant, made international headlines in part because of graphic footage of the attack, as well as Zhang Lidong's defiance during the subsequent trial.

"I beat her with all my might and stamped on her too," the cult member, who used a metal bar to go after the woman, had noted. "She was a demon, we had to destroy her," he added.

The convicted killers were allowed to meet with their family before the execution, CNN noted. China's Supreme People's Court -- the country's highest -- had given its approval before their sentence was carried out, the Guardian added.

Three other members of their cult, meanwhile, are serving jail terms ranging from seven years to life because of the attack, CNN detailed. The group, which calls itself the "Church of Almighty God," has been linked to kidnappings, violence and extortion.

Since 1995, it appears on a list of 14 banned religious groups issued by China's Ministry of Public Security. Three years ago, the Communist government intensified its crackdown on the cult, which had called for a "decisive battle" to slay the "Red Dragon" Communist party, the Guardian reported.

"All-Powerful Spirit" members believe that Jesus was resurrected as Yang Xiangbin, the wife of the sect's founder Zhao Weishan, according to reports from state news agency Xinhua. An important number of cults has sprung up in China in recent years, and the country's authorities have reacted with force to the perceived threat.

Several sect leaders have been executed, the Guardian noted, and in 1999, then-President Jiang Zemin launched a campaign to crush the Falun Gong religious group. State media reported extensively on Monday's execution, frequently replaying the three-minute security video that showed the Zhangs' brutal attack, the Daily Mail said.