Cult Members Leave Apocalypse Cave
Updated:15:39, Tuesday April 01, 2008
Fourteen members of a Russian doomsday cult have emerged after six months in an underground bunker, saying God had signalled they should return to the surface.
They had been living in a cave 400 miles south-east of Moscow to await the end of the world, which their leader predicted would happen in April or May.
However, a landslide inside the bunker was interpreted as being a message from God to leave the underground shelter.
Among those to leave the cave include two girls, aged eight and 12.
"All are in good health, considering they have spent half a year underground," said Oleg Melnichenko, deputy governor of the Penza region, where the cult members have been holed up.
"They have refused medical attention and are now in a house, praying, where they say they will stay until Orthodox Easter (April 27)."
A total of 35 people entered the cave last October and 14 are still inside, including two young girls.
Rescuers were trying to reach them as they had been cut off by the landslide. Seven people left the dugout at the weekend.
The sect's leader, Pyotr Kuznetsov, did not join his followers in the cave because he told them God had different tasks for him.
The cult is said to be an splinter group of the Russian Orthodox church that believes bar codes are the work of Satan.
Updated:15:39, Tuesday April 01, 2008
Fourteen members of a Russian doomsday cult have emerged after six months in an underground bunker, saying God had signalled they should return to the surface.
They had been living in a cave 400 miles south-east of Moscow to await the end of the world, which their leader predicted would happen in April or May.
However, a landslide inside the bunker was interpreted as being a message from God to leave the underground shelter.
Among those to leave the cave include two girls, aged eight and 12.
"All are in good health, considering they have spent half a year underground," said Oleg Melnichenko, deputy governor of the Penza region, where the cult members have been holed up.
"They have refused medical attention and are now in a house, praying, where they say they will stay until Orthodox Easter (April 27)."
A total of 35 people entered the cave last October and 14 are still inside, including two young girls.
Rescuers were trying to reach them as they had been cut off by the landslide. Seven people left the dugout at the weekend.
The sect's leader, Pyotr Kuznetsov, did not join his followers in the cave because he told them God had different tasks for him.
The cult is said to be an splinter group of the Russian Orthodox church that believes bar codes are the work of Satan.
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