YEKATERINBURG, September 26 /ITAR-TASS/. The death toll among young people who took an unknown drug keeps rising in the city of Surgut and the Surgut district of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region (Jugra).
“On September 25, the number of victims kept growing every hour. Most patients were young people under 35. Local law enforcers took the situation under control. However, they found it hard to establish the exact number of casualties,” a source at the Surgut city administration told ITAR-TASS on Thursday.
According to the latest reports, six people have died and about 200 have been taken to Jugra’s hospitals. Police are trying to establish the IP-address of a website where the young people had ordered the poisonous drug, the Russian Interior Ministry said.
Meanwhile, the Federal Anti-Drug Service told ITAR-TASS on Friday that two drug dealers suspected of distributing the toxic drug had been detained in Surgut and the Kirov region.
"Criminal experts of the Federal Anti-Drug Service have established that the drug contains two newly designed psychoactive substances made of two components…The Federal Anti-Drug Service has initiated criminal proceedings. Two drug dealers have been arrested,” the Federal Anti-Drug Service spokesperson said.
The service’s head Viktor Ivanov said, in turn, that about 350 new drugs had appeared in the world since the start of 2014.