A 14-year-old girl Russian girl was so scared by the doomsday predictions of Californian evangelist Harold Camping that she hanged herself, investigators said Wednesday.
Camping warned the world would end last Saturday, predicting that 200 million Christians would be elevated to heaven while the rest of civilization would be wiped out by devastating earthquakes.
He faced ridicule when his predicted "Rapture" failed to materialize, but his apocalyptic prophecy managed to spook his American followers, some of whom quit their jobs and depleted their savings in readiness.
It was also reported Wednesday that a teenager living in the Mari El Republic, central Russia, was so scared by Camping's claims, she decided to hang herself just hours before his Saturday night deadline.
Russia's state-owned news agency, RIA Novosti, said the girl had written about Judgment Day in her diary. Investigators said Camping's predictions had also triggered a dramatic change in her behavior.
"We are not righteous people, only they will go to heaven, the others will stay here on Earth to go through terrible sufferings," the girl, whose name has not been revealed, wrote in what she called a "death diary."
Her last entry said, "I don't want to die like the others. That's why I'll die now."
Investigators are looking for possible ties she had with alternative youth groups or religious sects, RIA Novosti said.
Camping, 89, insisted in a radio broadcast Monday he was not wrong but had simply muddled his dates. He also penciled in a new diary slot for the world's destruction - October 21.
