Mass suicides feared in Seoul

SEOUL (Reuter) - Hundreds of riot police will be on standby outside a South Korean church today to prevent mass suicides if a religious cult's end-of-the- world predictions do not materialise. Parents of young churchgoers are expected to congregate at Seoul's Dami missionary church in an attempt to prevent their children joining a 'rapture' at midnight, when the cult predicts the world will end.

'We plan to be around when the rapture does not materialise because anything could happen. We are not ruling out the possibility of suicides by some church members,' a poice spokesman said.