IT COULD almost have been a plot from a Cold War novel when a group of Russian singers disappeared in the middle of a Yorkshire tour.

The artists were booked to sing at Rawdon Parish Church but they went missing after a concert in Selby.

Now mystery surrounds the non-appearance of the singers from The Hermitage Ensemble after they vanished without explanation.

The Rawdon concert by the Russian Orthodox choir was meant was to have been their first in the area and was eagerly anticipated. But the singers, who are among the finest in St Petersburg, simply failed to show up.

Rawdon Parish Church Vicar the Rev Mark Smith said: "On the afternoon of the concert I turned up with our Church Warden to meet them over in Selby where they had just performed a very successful concert as part of their UK tour.

"Their tour administrator was there to meet us but there was no choir! The men had disappeared. We waited round for the best part of half the day hoping they might re-appear from some local hostelry (hopefully not the worse for wear!) but eventually we had to conclude they weren’t going to appear. We still don’t know what happened to them. So I just brought their abandoned administrator home."

Mr Smith, who admits the disappearance sparked an "entire cold war James Bond novel in my head" understood the singers had return tickets to St Petersburg and were due to fly back from London.

He said: "There were five singers Most of them were in their 50's, and professional musicians. One was 30 something."

"The administrator told me she would be contacting the Russian embassy concerning their disappearance. I don't really have time to chase it up further - and no hard feelings I don't think we'll be booking the same group again."

He added: "We did have a number of Russians living in the Leeds Bradford area attending the non -concert. They offered to speak to the the singers but of course we were unable to contact them."

Mr Smith described how people stayed for the evening anyway - enjoying a warm community social event and refusing to accept refunds.

He added: "We were disappointed that the Russian singers were not there to perform. However we are planning to offer some other equally interesting concerts and events in the future, and we are not put off by this unfortunate incident."