Hunt Intensifies as Japan Cultist Predicts Quake

More than 20,000 Japanese police officers set up roadblocks across the country Thursday in an attempt to arrest more leaders of the Aum Supreme Truth religious group, as its leader predicted that Tokyo would be hit by an earthquake Saturday.

A heightened state of alert, implemented after Shoko Asahara’s warning of a quake and another unspecified disaster in the capital, is expected to last through the weekend.

Asahara, the cult’s leader and prophet, remains in hiding. A spokesman relayed the prophecy in a statement issued to reporters.

Leisure facilities and other locations that attract large numbers of people will be patrolled by police, said NHK, the semi-governmental TV network.

More than 100 members of the cult have been arrested--including one who was apprehended as he finished appearing on a TV show Thursday--in raids staged in 20 prefectures, or states, since a March 20 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system killed 11 people and afflicted 5,500 others.

Although none of those arrested have been accused of participating in the attack, police suspect that the doomsday cult staged it.

Police also warned major newspapers to take precautions against attack.

Supreme Truth representatives have accused police of trying to suppress the sect and insist that the group had nothing to do with the nerve gas attack. They said the group was not planning to commit any violence.