AUSTIN, Texas (NEWSnet/AP) — Authorities in Texas are investigating at least nine deaths this week in connection with an unusual spike of opioid overdoses in Austin.

Health officials are calling the city's worst overdose outbreak in nearly a decade.

Typically, emergency responders field two or three calls per day in Austin, said Steve White, assistant chief of  Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Service. But Monday through Wednesday, at least 65 people required overdose treatment, said Darren Noak, a spokesman for the agency.

"At this time, it is apparent that there is an deadly batch of illicit narcotics in our community,” Austin Police Department Assistant Chief Eric Fitzgerald said Tuesday.

Preliminary testing showed all nine people who died had traces of fentanyl in their system and the majority had other drugs present too, according to Travis County spokesman Hector Nieto.

The victims ranged in age from 30s to 50s, said Keith Pinckard, Travis County’s chief medical examiner. Two people have been detained during investigation, but no charges related to overdoses had been filed as of Wednesday.

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