Tourist warning as more than a dozen go blind and drop dead at popular resort

More than a dozen tourists have died from methanol poisoning after unknowingly buying fake alcohol at a popular resort.

It is thought many of the people were buying the homemade alcohol from a local market, which led the victims to turn blind before an agonising death - and authorities are fearing the death toll will continue to rise.

All the tourists who have currently been identified made a trip to the popular resort of Sochi in Russia - Vladimir Putin’s favourite tourist spot. Among the dead are Maxim Smetanin, 37, and his wife Darya, 35, who bought the bootleg alcohol thinking it was the popular grape liquor grappa. It comes after a woman claimed 'my husband seemed confused on Christmas holiday - then he died in front of me'.

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Darya had small sips of the deadly drink on the long-distance train home, but soon started to feel unwell, with a report stating: “First she went blind, and then lost consciousness.”

Noticing something was seriously wrong, she was rushed to the hospital but died soon after. Unusually, her husband initially felt okay, but not long after Darya passed away, his condition took a turn, going blind and falling into a coma as his kidney collapsed.

While Methanol and ethanol are both alcohols, methanol is significantly more toxic than ethanol and is highly poisonous. It is more commonly used as a fuel or solvent for paint strippers.

Soon after, three members of a family of four were also killed after drinking a deadly cocktail bought from a market. All four began feeling ill, putting it down as a bad hangover, but according to reports in the Kub Mash telegram channel, in the evening they “were unable to stand or speak, and began losing consciousness".

All four were taken to the hospital, but only one of them survived. Another tourist went blind and died from kidney failure after drinking some fake Chacha - similar to Grappa- while two more female tourists died from methanol poisoning after arriving home.

Following a national guard raid of what is thought to be the dodgy market stall, two people identified only as Olesya, 31, and Eteri, 71, have appeared in a Sochi court suspected of distributing the fake alcohol.

Russian Interior Ministry spokeswoman Maj-Gen Irina Volk issued an urgent warning to Russians not to drink “alcohol-containing products of unknown origin”.

“Preliminary findings indicate that the detainees were selling homemade alcoholic beverages at the local Kazachiy market,” she said.

“Efforts are currently underway to identify the producer of the life-threatening alcohol and others involved in the illegal activity.”

Methanol poisoning has been on the rise in recent years as party-goers look for cheap booze and opt for local homemade drinks. This hit headlines last year when six people, including a British lawyer, died after drinking fake alcohol in Laos in South East Asia.