A mass poisoning linked to the consumption of illegal alcoholic beverages in southwestern Russia resulted in the deaths of 34 individuals on Sunday, while 24 others are receiving treatment in a hospital. Investigators in the Orenburg region have opened criminal cases following a series of alcohol poisoning deaths this week. The TASS news agency reported that police have since arrested ten people in connection with the production and sale of illegal alcoholic beverages.
According to local authorities quoted by the Interfax news agency, there are 67 known victims of consuming a substitute alcohol product in the area, with 34 fatalities recorded. It was added that seven of the patients receiving treatment in the hospital are in serious condition, with four on ventilators.
On Saturday, police confiscated 2,000 bottles of alcohol and reported the presence of toxic methanol in them, as noted by Reuters. The country has witnessed instances of mass alcohol poisoning in the past; in 2016, 77 people died in Siberia after consuming bath oil mixed with a methyl-containing alcoholic beverage in search of high sugar levels.
The World Health Organization stated in 2019 that Russians have long been known to be among the highest consumers of alcohol in the world, although consumption has decreased in recent years, falling by 43 percent from 2003 to 2016, which has led to a rapid increase in life expectancy.
