A practitioner of China's banned Falun Gong cult in northeastern Liaoning province hammered his sleeping wife to death and left his 14-year-old daughter seriously injured on February 3, local authorities said Thursday.

Dong Li, 37, confessed he had received his master Li Hongzhi's instruction on that day which said that at 0:00 February 4, the earth would destruct itself. According to the instruction, only dead Falun Gong followers could become immortal, otherwise the living would turn into pigs and dogs.

The fervent disciple, who has been following Falun Gong since 1997, decided to kill his wife and daughter.

However, Dong did not act until late evening that day. When both his wife and daughter fell asleep at 10:00pm, he took his pick and attacked them after burning all his books and tapes on Falun Gong.

He failed to notice that his daughter was still alive because the light had broken during his attack. After the farmer wiped the blood off himself, he gave himself up to the police and asked to be executed so that he could achieve nirvana along with his family.

The man kept murmuring "three minutes left for internal completion" while he was in the police station, said an police officer.

The Dongs are all Falun Gong followers. Dong Li had followed a conversion course offered by the local government of Chaoyang County and he assured to give up the cult.

"Nevertheless he is still obsessed by Li Hongzhi," a local policeman said.

Dong's teenage daughter is currently in hospital and she had escaped from dangerous condition.

( February 8, 2002)