SUBJECT: RTw 10/28 0907 POLICE CLASH WITH S. KOREAN DOOMSDAY CROWDS (Eds. Updates with dis

SUBJECT: RTw  10/28 0907  POLICE CLASH WITH S. KOREAN DOOMSDAY CROWDS

  (Eds. Updates with disturbances)
    By Andrew Steele
    SEOUL, Oct 28, Reuter - Police clashed with rowdy crowds outside a
Seoul church on Wednesday as worshippers inside sang and prayed to
prepare for the end of the world which they believe will strike at
midnight.
    Riot police sealed off the Dami Missionary church, barring
latecoming worshippers entry to the five-storey brick building where
inside, white-robed followers of the doomsday sect prepared to meet
their fate.
    "Please sir, let us in," cried a tearful woman, clutching her two
toddler children, appealing to a guard inside the church, which was
blocked off with a metal grille.
    Hundreds of police tried to contain a rowdy crowd of onlookers and
relatives aggrieved by the loss of their loved ones to the
end-of-the-world sect.
    The Dami church, along with more than 150 others, believe Armageddon
will strike at midnight (1500 GMT), with only the chosen few rising to
heaven in a "rapture."
    Police have been deployed in force all over South Korea to protect
the followers from themselves, fearing mass suicide and self-immolation
if the prophecy does not come true.