Fourteen more members of a Russian doomsday cult have emerged from their underground bunker.

The group has been holed up in the cave in the Penza region of central Russia since October.

The cult members had earlier said they would not come out before the apocalypse, which their leader Pavel Kuznetsov - who is now undergoing court-ordered psychiatric treatment - had predicted would happen in April or May this year.

Oleg Melnichenko, the region's deputy governor, said in addition to the seven women who left the dugout over the weekend, a further 14 people, including two girls aged eight and 12, have emerged.

He said: "At 7.20 they began coming out voluntarily and said that God had given them a signal to leave after the fourth partial cave-in.

"All are in good health, considering they have spent half a year underground. They have refused medical attention and are now in a house, praying, where they say they will stay until Orthodox Easter (on April 27)."

Mr Melnichenko said the remaining 14 members were in another underground chamber that had been cut off from the exit by the cave-in and that negotiations were ongoing to persuade them to leave.

Rescue workers were preparing to dig down to them.

The cult leader, Mr Kuznetsov, did not join his followers in the bunker, saying God had different tasks for him. Officials had brought him to the scene to persuade his followers to come out.

The sect, which is a splinter group of the Russian Orthodox church, rejects processed food and believes bar codes on products are the work of Satan.

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