A handful of Russian doomsday cult members on Friday crawled out of the damp cave where they had holed up for months awaiting the end of the world after authorities removed two rotting corpses from their underground lair.
The nine were the last of the 35 men, women and children that had dug into a hillside near the Volga region town of Penza in November and threatened to blow themselves up with gas canisters if officials tried to forcibly remove them.
The last quit their hideout after officials found the bodies of two female cult members who died in the cave and warned survivors they could be poisoned by fumes from the decomposing bodies.
Emergency officials said they found the corpses by accident while trying to strengthen the cave supports. The elaborate structure — complete with sleeping rooms, a makeshift kitchen and religious altars — suffered partial cave-ins earlier this year caused by melting snow.
Cult members who left the cave earlier told local journalists that the women died of cancer and exhaustion.
“We could smell the stench through ventilation holes,” a local official involved in the negotiations, Vladimir Provotorov, was quoted by RIA-Novosti as saying. “As we pulled out the dead bodies, we suggested the others leave. They agreed.”
Police said they offered the cult members food, but they refused to take it. More...
See also: The Year 2012: Should we be afraid?
And this: The Oprah Winfrey cult?
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