MOSCOW, August 23 (RIA Novosti) – Four members of one family in Russia’s republic of Tatarstan, on the Volga, have been killed by gas from rotten potatoes they were storing in a garage, local investigators said on Friday.
The bodies of a 42-year-old man, his wife, 38, their son, 18, and mother-in-law, 63, were found in the basement of the garage in the town of Laishevo on Thursday afternoon, the local Investigative Committee said.
“They likely died through poisoning by the gas that had built up in the basement from rotting potatoes,” the statement said.
According to investigators, the man, a university teacher, was the first to fall victim to the “potato gas,” when he fainted after going down into the basement.
His wife and son followed him down, and also succumbed to the noxious gas, the statement said.
The elderly woman called a neighbor to help, but went down into the basement herself and was later found there, dead, investigators said.
