Nikolskoye, Russia -The leader of a Russian doomsday sect that barricaded itself in a cave to wait for the Apocalypse has attempted to commit suicide, Russian media reported on Thursday, citing an official.
The incident came as expectations grew that the last 11 members of the Orthodox Christian sect out of 35 cultists who holed themselves up in the cave will come to the surface amid fears that rain could make the cave collapse.
Pyotr Kuznetsov stayed on the surface more than five months ago when his followers, who refuse to use telephones and believe bar codes are sinful, went underground some 700km southeast of Moscow.
He has been detained and treated in a psychiatric hospital since November, but has been released by officials to persuade sect members to come out and has been living with some of them in a house in the farming village of Nikolskoye.
Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation against him.
Hit his head with a log
"It was an attempted suicide. Pyotr put his head on a tree stump and started hitting his head with a log. He is in hospital with a head wound," said Oleg Melnichenko, deputy governor of Penza region, NTV television reported.
Interfax news agency also quoted Melnichenko saying the same thing.
After the collapse of parts of the cave because of melting snow, 24 sect members have emerged in the past week and they are continuing to await the end of the world in houses in the village.
Kuznetsov spoke to his followers in the cave on Wednesday, persuading a mother and her two children to come out.
"Pyotr said God had collapsed the cave and to go against God is a great sin," Melnichenko said on Wednesday.
Officials have also brought in a priest specialising in apocalyptic literature to speak to the sect.
Kuznetsov, who grew up in Nikolskoye in a deeply religious family, proclaimed himself a prophet and preached a strict brand of Christianity, instructing cult members to reject all aspects of modernity.
Bar codes: the sign of the devil
His followers came from other parts of Russia and from Belarus, a neighbouring former Soviet republic. Villagers remembered how the cultists would wander quietly around the village, dressed in long black robes.
Sect members who have come out of the cave have been able to clean themselves in a traditional Russian sauna after going months without running water. They have refused to talk to journalists.
They were even given a cow by local authorities after they said they could not use milk from cartons since it carried bar codes, which they believe are the sign of the devil.
Rescuers on Wednesday used their hands to clear mud from the entrance of the cave to avoid further collapses. Doctors, psychologists, police and Orthodox priests were on standby near the cave.
- AFP