Authorities in Russia's Chechen Republic are investigating a mass illness in the eastern district of Nozhai-Yurt.
Local authorities say that 109 residents of the village of Ishkhoi-Yurt, including 26 children, have been hospitalized.
Chechen Health Minister Shakhid Akhmadov said on June 4 that it is too early to say definitively what caused the illnesses, while residents in the Chechen capital, Grozny, are being warned by loudspeakers not to drink tap water.
The head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, however, categorically denied that contaminated water supplies were to blame.
Kadyrov has appointed a special commission led by Chechen Prime Minister Abubakar Edelgeriev to investigate the incident.
Local authorities say that 109 residents of the village of Ishkhoi-Yurt, including 26 children, have been hospitalized.
Chechen Health Minister Shakhid Akhmadov said on June 4 that it is too early to say definitively what caused the illnesses, while residents in the Chechen capital, Grozny, are being warned by loudspeakers not to drink tap water.
The head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, however, categorically denied that contaminated water supplies were to blame.
Kadyrov has appointed a special commission led by Chechen Prime Minister Abubakar Edelgeriev to investigate the incident.