7 doomsday cult killers are hanged

SEVEN members of a doomsday cult that carried out a deadly chemical attack on the Tokyo underground in 1995 were executed yesterday.

Shoko Asahara, 63, leader of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, was hanged with six other members.

A total of 13 people were killed and 6,000 injured when cultists released the nerve agent sarin on subway lines on March 20, 1995.

Aum Shinrikyo believed the end of the world was coming and those not in the cult would go to hell unless they were killed by cult members.

Yesterday’s executions in Tokyo had been postponed until all those convicted had completed final appeals, which happened in January. Another six members of the cult remain on death row.