The number of fatalities due to alcohol poisoning in western Russia has risen to 25 this month, as investigators revealed on Saturday that lethal levels of methanol were detected in six additional victims.

Deaths caused by cheap homemade liquor are not rare in Russia, which has struggled with significant alcoholism issues for many years, although such incidents have decreased since the peak levels seen in the 1990s.

“The forensic examination of the remains of six deceased individuals has indicated elevated or fatal concentrations of methanol,” reported Russia’s Investigative Committee.

The bodies were retrieved from the Volosovsky district of the Leningrad region between September 10 and 17, the committee noted.

Three individuals have been apprehended and are currently awaiting trial, according to the investigation team.

Earlier this week, authorities sentenced two individuals to nearly ten years in prison for producing and distributing a fake cider beverage that resulted in the deaths of 50 people in 2023.

In 2016, a tragedy in Irkutsk, Siberia, claimed the lives of over 60 individuals who consumed illegal bath oil containing methanol.

Following that incident, Russia enacted stricter laws, yet affordable homemade spirits using alcohol substitutes continue to be widely accessible, especially in rural areas with low living standards, where the cost of vodka is prohibitively high.