No New Year's toasts in sauna, Russians urged

People enjoy a steam in the mobile Russian baths in the village of Bobrovka, about 400 km (249 miles) north of the Siberian city of Omsk December 27, 2009.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has urged revelers celebrating the New Year in saunas on Thursday night to refrain from popping open the champagne until they have left the steam houses, warning it could prove fatal.

"I would like to make the following recommendation: drink after being in the sauna, not when inside," Interfax news agency quoted Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying on New Year's Eve.

"Maybe this sounds funny... But many people die in saunas," he added.

Enthusiastic sauna visitors, Russians often drink beer or vodka in the wood-paneled huts and hold alcohol-fueled New Year's celebrations in the thousands of steam rooms and bath houses across the country.

(Reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)