Islamic sect in Russia discovered living in catacombs

Some of the children, including babies aged one, are said to have spent their entire lives underground and never seen daylight.

The subterranean sect was discovered by police and security forces in the village of Torfyanoy near Kazan in the republic of Tatarstan, the biggest majority-Muslim region in Russia, 500 miles east of Moscow.

Officers were carrying out a routine check of conservative Islamic groups after a twin attack last month in which the moderate Mufti of the republic was injured in a car bomb and his deputy was shot dead.

A strict community led by Fayzrakhman Sattarov, 83, a self-claimed "emissary of Allah", had been known to be living at the property for up to a decade, ..