Russian doomsday leader attempts suicide

Published: April 4, 2008 at 5:08 PM

MOSCOW, April 4 (UPI) -- The leader of a doomsday cult in Russia tried to kill himself by hitting his head with a log because his apocalyptic vision had not come true, officials said.

Pyotr Kuznetsov, who had been hospitalized after being diagnosed with schizophrenia, was allowed out to try to persuade his followers to come out of caves where they had been awaiting the end of the world. He was sent back to hospital, The Times of London reports.

"It was an attempted suicide. Pyotr put his head on a tree stump and started hitting his head with a log. He is in hospital with a head wound," said Oleg Melnichenko, deputy governor of the Penza region.

Officials in the remote area 435 miles southeast of Moscow say that 11 people are still underground, arguing abut whether to emerge. They have said they will come out on April 27, the Russian Orthodox Easter.

Some of those who have come out were driven from a cave by a roof collapse brought on by melting snow.

Kuznetsov gathered his followers into what he called the True Orthodox Church. In addition to a belief that the end of the world is imminent, the group refuses to eat processed food. Authorities have presented them with a cow because they refuse to drink milk packaged with bar codes, which they believe are satanic symbols.

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