Russian doomsday cult leader "tried to kill himself"

NIKOLSKOE, Russia (Reuters) - The leader of a Russian doomsday cult tried to kill himself after most of his followers abandoned a bunker where they had been awaiting the end of the world for five months, an official said on Friday.

An ambulance rushed Pyotr Kuznetsov to hospital on Wednesday with serious head wounds but there was no immediate explanation for his injuries.

"The main theory being studied by investigators is an attempted suicide," a spokeswoman for the regional governor said.

Over the past six days, 24 members of the cult who had hidden in the bunker in the rural region of Penza since October abandoned their hide-out because melting snow and rain had weakened the mud structure, causing walls to collapse.

The 11 cult members still in the bunker are refusing to talk to officials trying to coax them out, the spokeswoman said.

"They have taken a vow of silence," she said. "They are all adults and have been warned about the threat to their lives from the collapsing walls."

Kuznetsov had declined to join his followers inside the bunker, stating that God had other work for him to do. He had been undergoing court-ordered psychiatric treatment.

(Reporting by Vera Kalian and Alexander Reshetnikov; Writing by James Kilner in Moscow; Editing by Giles Elgood)