Cult members leave cave after 5 months waiting for world’s end

FOURTEEN members of a doomsday sect have left a cave in western Russia after almost five months waiting underground for the end of the world, leaving 14 more behind.

“Two cells collapsed so they had to leave early,” said Anton Sharonov, a spokesman for the local administration in the Penza region.

Fourteen people came to the surface, including two children, he said. Women wearing head scarves were shown walking unsteadily near the cave in footage shown on Russia’s NTV channel.

Thirty-five members of the Orthodox sect, including four children, barricaded themselves in the cave five months ago to await the Apocalypse, which they calculated would come in May 2008.

Before leaving the cave, the 14 sect members asked for guarantees that they could retreat to a house in the village and wait out the Apocalypse there, said Sharonov.

After a different part of the cave collapsed last week, seven cult members came out after negotiations with their leader, Pyotr Kuznetsov, who stayed on the surface when his followers went into the cave.

Kuznetsov was released from a psychiatric hospital as part of the negotiations.

During talks with officials in recent months, cult members had threatened to blow themselves up with gas canisters if police tried to get them out by force.

“We were saved by a miracle,” said Sharonov, saying that the most hardened members of the sect, including one man who had threatened officials with a gun, were among those who left the cave yesterday. But worries remain about the 14 people left underground, including two young girls — one just two-years-old.

Flood water caused parts of the cave to collapse, said Penza deputy governor Oleg Melnichenko, but the remaining followers are in a section that is safe from collapse.

“They are not threatened with a catastrophic situation as the part where they are located is supported by the roots of trees,” he said.