A current and former member of Aum Shinrikyo were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of detaining a female follower who attempted to escape from a cult facility in Kiso-Fukushima, Nagano Prefecture, police said.

About 220 investigators were mobilized for a search of the facility in the morning. It was the first major raid on an Aum-related facility since those made in response to the various heinous crimes that occurred in 1995 and for which its members now stand accused.

During the search, police found a man in his 30s detained in a solitary cell and had him rushed to a hospital by ambulance.

Those arrested were identified as Masahiro Guntani, 30, a current Aum member and manager of the facility, and Ryuji Shimotori, 37, a doctor and former senior member of the cult.

Guntani is suspected of conspiring with Shimotori in the 10-day alleged confinement of the female member in late March 1998 at the cult facility, reportedly for cult practices, ignoring her request to be released.

Because she attempted to stab herself in the neck with a broken piece of glass, Guntani bound the woman's hands and legs with adhesive tape and submerged her in a bath until she lost consciousness, according to police.

The woman, whose name was withheld, escaped from the facility on April 3, 1998, and sought the protection of nearby residents.

According to police, the woman, from Saitama Prefecture, became a resident follower of the cult in 1987.

Later that year, she broke her leg after leaping from the third floor of a cult complex in an attempt to escape.

She continues to be an Aum follower, but no longer lives at a cult facility, police said.

The Kiso-Fukushima facility is believed to house the cult's medical department, comprising followers with medical and nursing licenses. Guntani serves as head of the facility, while Shimotori was the cult's only medical doctor.

The building, previously used as an inn, was purchased in 1997 by a male follower from Nagareyama, Chiba Prefecture. Currently, about 20 cultists, including Guntani, are registered as residents there, and about 40 followers regularly come to the facility, according to investigation sources.

Shimotori left the cult last spring because he "became tired of the cult's system of leadership."

Since December 1997, four people, including the woman, have fled the facility and sought protection.

The municipal government has taken legal action seeking to force the cult to leave town.

Kiso-Fukushima argues that the cult has engaged in missionary work despite their promise to use the facility only as a recreation center. The cult simply argues that the facility is private property.

A growing number of local communities across the country have been waging campaigns against Aum facilities in their towns.

Some are rejecting residency applications submitted by Aum members while others are considering using tax money to buy local Aum buildings and property.

It is believed that Aum has about 2,100 members.

Aum denied any wrongdoing following the arrest of the two members, saying that some followers who are mentally ill train in solitary cells at times.

"The room that she was in has a lock on the inside, so it is not built to detain anyone," Aum claimed in a written statement. "We have a written oath saying she voluntarily practiced the training."

Shoko Egawa, a journalist who has closely watched Aum activities, said she heard rumors that the cult facility in Kiso-Fukushima was used to confine followers who were having trouble believing in the cult's doctrine or who were mentally unstable.

"The concept of freedom of religion includes the freedom to stop being a follower," Egawa said. "The cult must thoroughly review the resident-follower system to prevent similar cases from happening."

Nonfiction writer Ryuzo Saki says the incident reminds him of similar cases involving Aum before the 1995 Tokyo subway gas attack.

"The nature of the cult has not changed (since then)," Saki said.

He said he was closely watching what Aum would say in a news conference scheduled for later Wednesday, in which the cult was expected to make a statement concerning its responsibility for a series of crimes, including the 1995 sarin gas attack.

Takeshi Noda, chief of the National Public Safety Commission, stressed the need for a new law to curb Aum's activities, adding that the nature of the cult has not changed a bit even after it was stripped of its status as a religious corporation.

Noda, who is also home affairs minister, claimed that it is important to pass such legislation in the next Diet session, to be convened next month.

Although Aum is reportedly considering admitting its involvement in and apologizing for the deadly nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in March 1995, security authorities believe the cult has not really changed its ways.

The cult is alleged to have frequently used abduction and confinement as a means of keeping its followers from leaving or extracting donations from its members and their relatives.

In February 1995, Yoshihiro Inoue, 38, a former senior cultist, and other Aum members allegedly abducted Tokyo notary public Kiyoshi Kariya, 68, to force him into confessing the whereabouts of his sister, who was trying to leave the cult.

Kariya was confined at a cult facility in Kamikuishiki, Yamanashi Prefecture, after being given an anesthetic. It is believed he later died of an overdose of the drug.

In February 1995, Aum allegedly kidnapped a former follower in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, and detained him in a Kamikuishiki building. A month later, cult members reportedly kidnapped a university student in Minoo, Osaka Prefecture.

In a similar case, the owner of an inn in Kobayashi, Miyazaki Prefecture, was drugged in March 1994 by his daughters, who were cult followers, and confined in a cult building for about five months.

During the detention, his daughters demanded that he offer money he gained from selling real estate to Aum as an offering.