Doomsday cult leader returns to psychiatric hospital

4 May, 2008 08:26 / Updated 17 years ago

The leader of the Penza Doomsday Cult has been taken to a psychiatric clinic after almost a month in hospital following a suicide attempt.

Pyotr Kuznetsov, a former engineer, who had fallen out with the Russian Orthodox Church, has been diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia. Nine members of the Doomsday Cult founded by him are still holed up in an underground shelter in central Russia. They are part of a group of 35 people who barricaded themselves in the bunker late last year to await the end of the world. In March and April, most of the Cult members were forced to come out as the roof began to collapse due to spring flooding.