At least 19 people have died this month of suspected alcohol poisoning in Russia's western Leningrad region, local officials said Friday.

Incidents of mass deaths from drinking cheap homemade alcohol substitutes are not uncommon in Russia, which has been blighted by high levels of alcoholism for years.

The regional government's press service said in a statement that "19 deaths after alcohol consumption were recorded in the Slantsy District in September."

It added that eight cases had so far been "laboratory-confirmed as methanol poisoning."

Investigators said they had detained a man and a woman after prosecutors opened a criminal case to probe "the poisoning of several residents of the Slantsy District with counterfeit alcohol."

Earlier this week, prosecutors sentenced two people

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