In Irkutsk, eight people died after being poisoned with “hawthorn tincture”

Eight people died after being poisoned by low-quality alcohol in Irkutsk, reports , citing a source in the region’s emergency services. Interfax

According to the source, nine more were hospitalized, six of them in critical condition; Victims began arriving at hospitals on Saturday.

The Irkutsk Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed the departures. “The incident occurred on December 18 in the Novo-Lenino microdistrict of the regional center. Law enforcement agencies received a message from a medical facility that several local residents were admitted with a diagnosis of alcohol poisoning. To date, eight people have died, nine citizens are in the hospital,” the agency quotes a message from the department’s press service.

The police noted that presumably all those hospitalized drank hawthorn tincture. “Her samples were confiscated and sent for examination to the Forensic Expert Center of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Irkutsk Region,” the press service added.

Updated at 6:36 p.m. The Investigative Committee of the Irkutsk Region opened a criminal case into the poisonings under Part 3 of Article 238 of the Criminal Code (production, storage, sale of goods and products that do not meet safety requirements, resulting in the death of two or more persons through negligence).

According to the department, a total of 18 people were injured from poisoning. It is noted that they all drank "Hawthorn bath concentrate" despite the fact that the label contained a "warning against internal use."