The group includes large group of twenty children – shockingly, many of which have never seen the light of day. The youngest is just 18 months old. One 17 year old was found to be pregnant.

The sect was named after self-proclaimed prophet Fayzrahman Satarov who led the group.

The bunker was discovered in the Russian town of Kazan, around 500 miles east of Moscow. Followers were banned from leaving the eight-storey bunker dug under the home of leader Satarov.

Reuters reported that the group had been “without heat or sunlight for nearly a decade”.

It is speculated that the suppression of religion following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 may have forced the group to literally go underground.