End-of-world cult members leave cave

A further 14 members of a Russian cult that has been holed up in a cave for months awaiting the end of the world have emerged this morning, an emergency official said.

The group, which included two children aged eight and 14, were in satisfactory condition, regional emergency spokesman Dmitry Yeskin said. They were moved to a nearby house, where the group’s leader, self-declared prophet Pyotr Kuznetsov, has been living.

Mr Yeskin said negotiators were trying to persuade the remaining 14 to come out of the underground hillside shelter, which was built in the Penza region, about 400 miles south-east of Moscow, last autumn.

Last Friday, seven other cult members emerged as melting spring snows caused part of the shelter to cave in, sparking fears that the entire structure could collapse.

A total of 35 people entered the cave, near the village of Nikolskoye, in early November to await the end of the world, which they said would happen in May. They told authorities that they would detonate gas canisters if police tried to remove them by force.

Mr Yeskin said the group that came out today also handed over three rifles.

Authorities had repeatedly enlisted the help of priests from the Orthodox Church in an effort to persuade the group to leave, communicating mainly through a small chimney pipe that poked up through the snowy hillside.

Some of the cult members had indicated last week they might leave the cave on Orthodox Easter, which is April 27.

Mr Kuznetsov has been charged with setting up a religious organisation associated with violence and officials later said they had seized literature that included what appeared to be extremist rhetoric. He had been confined to a psychiatric hospital since last November, but was brought to Nikolskoye late last month where he helped in negotiations.

An engineer from a devout family, Mr Kuznetsov, who goes by the title of Father Pyotr, declared himself a prophet several years ago. He left his family and established the True Russian Orthodox Church and recruited followers in Russia and Belarus.

He reportedly told followers that, in the afterlife, they would be judging whether others deserved heaven or hell.

Followers were not allowed to watch television, listen to the radio or handle money, Russian media reported.