A Mongolian couple have died of the bubonic plague after eating raw marmot kidney, triggering a quarantine that left tourists stranded in a remote region for days.

The ethnic Kazakh couple died on 1 May in Mongolia’s westernmost province of Bayan-Ulgii, which borders Russia and China.

A six-day quarantine was declared in the region, preventing nine tourists from Russia, Germany and Switzerland from leaving.

Sebastian Pique, 24, an American Peace Corps volunteer who has lived in the region for two years, said he and the tourists were invited to the local governor’s office on Friday to be informed about the situation.

“After the quarantine [was announced], not many people – even locals – were in the streets for fear of catching the disease,” he said.

The quarantine was expected to be lifted on Monday after no other cases of the plague were reported.

Authorities have warned people against eating raw marmot meat because it can carry Yersinia pestis, the plague germ. Some people ignore the warnings as they believe that consuming the innards of the large rodent is good for their health.

Each year in Mongolia at least one person dies of the plague, mostly due to consuming such meat, according to the US National Center for Zoonotic Disease.

The Black Death wiped out millions of people in the Middle Ages but cases are now very rare. Its most common form is bubonic, which is spread by fleas and causes swelling of the lymph node. The more virulent form is pneumonic plague, which can be transmitted between humans through coughing.