The death toll from a mass poisoning linked to illegal alcohol in south-west Russia has risen to 34, with 24 more people being treated in hospital.
Investigators in the Orenburg region opened a criminal case after people began dying of alcohol poisoning last week.
Police have since detained 10 people in probes into the production and sale of illegal alcohol, TASS news agency reported.
"There are 67 known victims of surrogate alcohol in the region, 34 of whom have died," Orenburg's local government was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency on Sunday (local time).
Seven of the people being treated in hospital were in a serious condition and four were on ventilators, it said.
Police seized 2,000 bottles of alcohol on Saturday and said they had confirmed the bottles contained methanol, which is toxic.
Mass cases of alcohol poisonings have shocked the country in the past.
In 2016, 77 people died in Siberia from drinking bath oil laced with methylated spirit in search of alcoholic highs.
Russians have long had a reputation as some of the world's heaviest drinkers, but consumption has been declining in recent years, falling 43 per cent from 2003 to 2016, the World Health Organization said in 2019.
That has led to a rapid rise in life expectancy, it added.
Reuters
