By RIA Novosti
Nizhny Novgorod (Russia) : Some followers of a doomsday cult have barricaded themselves into the home of their leader in central Russia’s Penza region awaiting for apocalypse, which they say is due in May 2008, local media reported.
Apocalypse, in Greek, means revelation of hidden things and today the term is often used to mean the end of planet Earth.
According to media reports, at least two women and three children, who belong to sect called “The True Russian Orthodox Church,” have locked themselves in the house of their cult leader Pyotr Kuznetsov.
More than two-dozen of members of this cult had moved two weeks ago to a tunnel, waiting the end of the world.
Local residents said the inhabitants of the underground shelter had threatened to set themselves on fire if forced out.
The 43-year-old cult leader Pyotr Kuznetsov, who calls himself Father Pyotr, has been diagonised schizophrenic.
He is believed to have ordered his followers underground in early November, but declined to join them in their cave.
Kuznetsov is currently being held in a psychiatric hospital, and a criminal case has been launched against him.