A survivor of a cult that killed her daughter and six other people in a remote village in Panama has described how she was ordered to close her eyes and beaten and knocked unconscious during the ritual.

Key points: Survivor Dina Blanco's nine-year-old daughter Ins was killed in the ceremony

Survivor Dina Blanco's nine-year-old daughter Ins was killed in the ceremony Authorities said cult members used Bibles, cudgels and machetes to hit the congregants

Authorities said cult members used Bibles, cudgels and machetes to hit the congregants Nine of the 10 lay preachers detained last week have been charged with murder and kidnapping

Dina Blanco's account suggests the 14 surviving participants were helpless, bound, unconscious or sightless much of the time.

So the truth about what happened in the bizarre ceremony may only come out at the trials of the nine villagers charged with killing their neighbours in the hamlet of El Terron last week.

Speaking from her hospital bed in the nearest city, Santiago, Ms Blanco said she had gone to previous prayer meetings at the improvised church in a long wooden shed.

But this time, the tone had changed, and she did not go willingly.

The cult, which had operated in the village for about three months, changed after a member had a vision, telling the lay preachers they had been "anointed" to exterminate unbelievers.

Ms Blanco said a neighbour, Olivia, came to call her to the meeting of the New Light of God sect on January 13, saying she would have to come "whether you like it or not".

The abandoned improvised church where a pregnant woman, five of her children and a neighbour were killed in a religious ritual in a jungle community in El Terron. ( AP: Arnulfo Franco )

So she went — along with her nine-year-old daughter, who had epilepsy, her 15-year-old son and her father.

Her father and her son managed to escape; Ms Blanco and her daughter, Ins, were not so lucky.

When they arrived, they were told not to open their eyes, and to grab each others' hands and pray.

"I felt something hit my head, and then I don't know what happened to me. I dropped to my knees," the short, dark-haired Ms Blanco said.

Residents gather in the remote jungle community following the cult killings. ( AP: Arnulfo Franco )

'The presence of God'

Authorities said cult members used Bibles, cudgels and machetes to hit the congregants. Ms Blanco still bears a broad bruise across her forehead from whatever hit her.

"When I came to, they kept telling me not to open my eyes," she recalled.

"I heard drums, an accordion, screams, crying. I was tied up."

Bibles lie scattered in the abandoned shed where the killings took place. ( AP: Arnulfo Franco )

Authorities said some of the congregants had been forced to strip, and walk across glowing embers.

But the worst was yet to come. Late that night or in the early morning hours of January 14, a sect member approached and told her that her daughter Ins had died.

"The birds of the fields shall dispose of her body," the voice said.

In fact, Ins, like Ms Blanco's pregnant neighbour and five of her children, had been murdered during the ritual and their naked bodies slung into hammocks and dumped in a freshly-dug common grave in the village cemetery.

Nine of the 10 lay preachers detained last week have been charged with murder and kidnapping.

Over the weekend, Bibles still laid open and musical instruments were scattered in the shed where the killings took place.

Indigenous leader Evangelisto Santo has said that during the ceremony, "People were dancing and singing and nobody paid attention because we knew that they were in the presence of God."

The clothes of some of the victims were discarded on the ground. ( AP: Arnulfo Franco )

But for Ms Blanco, God was not among those present.

"For me, it was hate that was there," she said.

'I won't have her anymore'

El Terron is nestled in the jungle of the indigenous Ngabe-Bugle enclave on Panama's Caribbean coast, and is largely cut off from the outside world.

Its 300 residents must walk hours along steep and muddy narrow roads to hail boats that can transport them along a river to other villages that have electricity, telephones, health clinics and a police presence.

El Terron is a remote jungle community on Panama's east coast. ( AP: Arnulfo Franco )

Ms Blanco must still undergo scans at the hospital in the city of Santiago, to rule out internal injuries.

She has bruises on her abdomen, back and hands from the beatings. But what hurts her most is in her heart.

"She was a disabled girl," she said of her daughter Ins.

"I spent a lot of time on her, I bought her pills to treat her illness that cost $3," a huge amount for impoverished farmers in Panama's poorest region.

"Now I won't have her at home anymore.

"That is the greatest pain that I have."

AP