Geneva - Swiss police said yesterday they were stepping up surveillance of the notorious Solar Temple suicide cult ahead of the winter solstice on December 21st.
Since 1994, 74 of the cult's followers and their family members have committed suicide. The last suicides were in March when five followers, two of them Swiss, killed themselves in Quebec.
The sect believes "death voyages" by ritualised suicide lead to rebirth in a place called "Sirius". Its followers, mostly well-off professionals, are taught the world will end in fire and that they must die by burning to reach the afterworld, Swiss judiciary officials say.