ST. PETERSBURG, August 17. /TASS/. Food services in the Polyustrovo hotel in St. Petersburg, where over 70 people, including foreigners, got poisoned Sunday, were organized with gross violations, the northwestern Russian city’s department of the consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor told TASS Monday.
"The investigation has revealed gross violations in catering services for the visitors. All affected persons point to the connection of the disease with meals in the restaurant on the hotel’s first floor," the department said.
"The food services were organized by LLC Polyus, whose activity was halted by the department until a court ruling," it said.
The department said 18 people, including three children aged 3-16, were hospitalized to the city’s infection clinics.
"The provisional diagnosis of those who have become sick is acute gastroenteritis, enterocolitis, gastroenterocolitis," Rospotrebnadzor said.
Earlier reports said Russia’s Investigative Committee launched criminal proceedings over the poisoning of Polyustrovo hotel guests.
St. Petersburg prosecutors said 71 people, including 56 Chinese nationals, requested medical assistance with signs of food poisoning on August 16.