Priests have tried unsuccessfully to persuade members of a doomsday cult to leave a cave in southern Russia where they remain barricaded inside despite the intervention of their leader. The cult members -- including four children -- holed themselves up in a ravine in the Penza region, about 640 kilometers (400 miles) southeast of Moscow, earlier this month, threatening mass suicide if the authorities try to intervene, a government official said.On Thursday, Russian Orthodox monks tried to contact the cult, The Associated Press reported, but members refused to speak to them. Priests went again Sunday, but the followers refused to listen to their arguments, a security official added.
The 29 members of the cult, which calls itself the "True Russian Orthodox Church," say they will ignite gasoline canisters if authorities try to force them out, regional administration spokesman Yevgeny Guseynov told CNN.
Guseynov said officials would try to find experienced negotiators. "There is no talk whatsoever of any sort of storming" the site, he said.
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