Last of Russian doomsday cult leaves stronghold

THE last nine members of a Russian doomsday cult holed up underground for months awaiting the end of the world abandoned their cave yesterday.

They were the remnants of a group of 35 men, women and children who dug into a hillside near the Volga region town of Penza in November and threatened to blow themselves up with gas canisters if anyone tried to forcibly remove them.

The structure — complete with sleeping rooms, a makeshift kitchen and altars — suffered partial cave-ins earlier this year due to melting snows. The cave-ins prompted most of the group including self-declared prophet Pyotr Kuznetsov to leave.

The last nine emerged today after the bodies of two women who died in the cave were removed, a police officer said. The officer did not say why the group left, but Russian news agencies quoted authorities as saying they left after being warned they could be poisoned by fumes from the rotting corpses.

Cult members who left the cave earlier told local journalists that the women had died from cancer and exhaustion.