At least 17 people have died in Russia after drinking substitute alcohol containing highly toxic methanol.
Another 16 people would be treated with alcohol poisoning in the hospital, said the governor of the Orenburg region, Denis Pasler, on Friday.
According to him, specialists and intensive care physicians have been sent to the region in the southern Urals and controls have been started at all alcohol dealers in the affected area.
The local investigation committee reported three arrests - including the operator of a production facility in Orsk that is said to have sold the substitute alcohol.
More than 1200 bottles were therefore confiscated.
Pasler called on the residents of the region not to drink alcohol for the time being.
"Until the results of the controls are available, the consumption of alcohol can be life-threatening," his office quoted him in the messenger service Telegram.
In some victims, methanol concentrations were found in the body that exceeded the lethal dose by three to five times.
Many poor residents of the former Soviet Union resort to alcohol-containing perfumes, face tonic, household cleaners or home-made drinks because they cannot afford alcoholic beverages.
In 2016, dozens of people died in the Siberian city of Irkutsk after drinking a bath additive containing methanol in search of cheap alcohol.