Half of Russian doomsday sect leave cave

MOSCOW (AFP) — 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, said a regional spokesman.

"Two cells collapsed so they had to leave early," Anton Sharonov, a spokesman for the local administration in Penza region, told AFP.

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 on Tuesday, 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 ...