August 19th, 2016 by WCBC Radio

Officials in a West Virginia city are warning people about an especially dangerous batch of heroin after authorities responded to 26 overdoses in within a four-hour span.

The rash of overdoses came this week  in the city of Huntington along the Ohio River in the western part of the state. Gordon Merry, the county's EMS director, said at a news conference that the heroin the users had taken was laced with a strong substance, but authorities aren't sure what it is.

Many of the overdoses were in an area surrounding one apartment complex in the city, he said, leading officials to believe the cases were connected. He said the amount of calls that were received overwhelmed responders.