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MOSCOW (AP) – Russian authorities said on Saturday that 29 people had died of alcohol poisoning this week in a region near Kazakhstan after consuming locally produced liquors containing methanol.
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Investigators investigating the production and sale of illegal alcoholic beverages said nine people had been detained in connection with the deaths in the Orenburg region, which is about 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) southeast of Moscow.
The Interior Ministry said it had seized liquids containing alcohol from warehouses and shops in the region and found that many of them contained methanol, which is toxic.
Earlier on Saturday, the regional Health Ministry said it had recorded 54 cases of alcohol poisoning this week, about half of which were fatal, the RIA news agency reported.
Following a case of mass alcohol poisoning in Siberia in 2016, national authorities ordered stricter controls on the production and sale of beverages, medicines, perfumes and other liquids that contain a high percentage of ethanol.
Reference-torontosun.com