The Russian Emergencies Ministry branch in the Irkutsk Region said 33 people, including 17 women, have in the past few days been admitted to hospitals of Angarsk, diagnosed with toxic hepatitis presumably caused by poorly distilled liquor. One of them has now died.
Forty-one others, including 21 women, have been reportedly hospitalized with the same diagnosis in the town of Zalari, and two of the cases have proved fatal, the ministry said.
Regional law-enforcement officials said the patients, most of whom belong to economically disadvantaged population groups, bought the liquor from backstreet dealers.
Police are working to track down the dealers, as well as those who distilled the lethal alcohol.
One man was detained in Zalari after 1,500 liters of homemade brandy was found in his house during a raid.
The Russian government launched a nationwide crackdown on bootleg alcohol earlier this year. It toughened excise stamping regulations for imported alcoholic beverages and barred Georgian and Moldovan wines from the domestic market after discovering that their heavy metal content exceeded the norm and could be hazardous to public health.
