Doomsday cult threaten mass suicide

A Russian doomsday cult have sealed themselves in a cave threatening to commit suicide if anyone disturbs them.

Psychologists were helping negotiate with the religious group in a snow-covered forest in the Penza region about 400 miles south-east of Moscow.

The 29 cult members and their children say they are waiting for the end of the world.

Members of the True Russian Orthodox Church claim they will ignite canisters filled with 100 gallons of petrol if anyone tries to force them out.

The group's leader, Pyotr Kuznetsov, established it after falling out with the Russian Orthodox Church.

Kuznetsov, who blessed his followers before sending them into the cave but did not join them himself, was undergoing psychiatric tests. He was charged yesterday with setting up a religious organisation associated with violence.

Among those barricaded in the cave are four children, one as young as 18 months. The members believe that the end of the world will occur this spring and they have laid in supplies of food to last until then.

They are in contact with officials and doctors but are refusing to talk to the official orthodox clergy.

Kuznetsov, a trained engineer, did not let his followers watch television, listen to the radio or handle money.