A minimum of 19 individuals have died this month of suspected alcohol poisoning in Russia’s western Leningrad area, native officers mentioned Friday.
Incidents of mass deaths from ingesting low-cost do-it-yourself alcohol substitutes will not be unusual in Russia, which has been blighted by excessive ranges of alcoholism for years.
The regional authorities’s press service mentioned in an announcement that “19 deaths after alcohol consumption had been recorded within the Slantsy District in September.”
It added that eight instances had up to now been “laboratory-confirmed as methanol poisoning.”
Investigators mentioned that they had detained a person and a lady after prosecutors opened a felony case to probe “the poisoning of a number of residents of the Slantsy District with counterfeit alcohol.”
Earlier this week, prosecutors sentenced two individuals to nearly a decade in jail for manufacturing and promoting a counterfeit cider drink that killed 50 individuals in 2023.
Investigative Committee of Russia for the Samara Area/Handout by way of REUTERS
And in 2016, greater than 60 individuals died in Irkutsk in Siberia after ingesting contraband bathtub oil that contained methanol.
Russia toughened its laws after that incident, however low-cost do-it-yourself spirits utilizing alcohol substitutes stay broadly obtainable, notably in rural areas with low requirements of residing and the place the worth of vodka is prohibitively excessive.
Tainted alcohol has additionally had lethal penalties in different nations in latest months.
In Might, greater than 20 individuals died in India after ingesting tainted liquor. 9 individuals had been in custody, police mentioned.
In January, 23 individuals died in Turkey in 48 hours after ingesting tainted alcohol.
In November 2024, six vacationers died in Laos from suspected methanol poisoning, state media reported.
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