Gay rights petitioners detained in Russia

Five gay rights activists were on Thursday detained in Moscow as they tried to deliver a petition to the office of Russia's prosecutor general.

The activists, four Russians and one Italian national, said more than two million people had signed the petition to investigate alleged torture and detentions of gay people in the Russian region of Chechnya, BBC reported.

They also carried huge empty boxes, symbolising online signatures they had collected in protest against the alleged crackdown, said the report.

The petition was signed "by more than two million people around the world, more than the entire population of the Chechen republic", the Russian LGBT Network said.

It said the activists were demanding "an unbiased investigation of illegal detentions of hundreds of people in Chechnya because of their homosexuality".

Police said the activists were held because their action was unauthorised.

Chechen officials deny that gay people even exist in the republic.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin backed an inquiry into the reported crackdown on gay people in Chechnya, in the North Caucasus.

Earlier this month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the Russian authorities to help protect gay rights.