— Two members of the Russian doomsday cult that have been hiding in a cave to wait for the end of the world have reportedly died, the first fatalities since the group went underground five months ago.
One member of the religious sect, Vitaly Nedogon, who left the cave last week, said that both were women and that one had died from cancer and another had starved herself to death.
Officials in the Penza region were continuing efforts to persuade the remaining members to return above ground amid fears that the cave near the village of Nikolskoye is in imminent danger of collapse.
The task has been complicated by the group's decision to take a vow of silence while they wait for the Apocalypse.
The doomsday sect is a splinter group from the Russian Orthodox Church and its adherents believe that the world will end in May.
clipped from: www.foxnews.com