(CNN) -- Russia has announced a ban on fresh vegetable imports from the European Union, state media reported Thursday.

Russian customs officials have been instructed to prevent the produce from entering the country, according to Gennady Onishchenko, head of the Russian Federal Agency for Health and Consumer Rights.

Supermarkets and food chains in Russia were told to withdraw European vegetables from their produce bins, Onishchenko told state media.

The ban comes in the wake of a deadly E. coli outbreak that has swept across parts of Europe.

The outbreak is responsible for 15 deaths in Germany and one in Sweden, according to media reports citing local authorities.

CNN has confirmed at least 12 deaths, including a woman in Sweden who had recently visited Germany. The outbreak has sickened more than 1,000 people.

The ban on fresh vegetables from the European Union comes three days after Russia blocked the import of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and salad greens from Germany and Spain.

Russia gets a majority of its fresh vegetables from China and Turkey.

The European Food Safety Alert Network said EHEC, or enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli, a strain of E. coli that causes hemorrhaging in the intestines, was found in organic cucumbers originating from Spain, packaged in Germany and distributed to countries including Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg and Spain.

But the source has not yet been pinpointed, authorities said.

(Reuters) - Russia banned imports of fresh vegetables from the European Union Thursday, accusing Brussels of sowing chaos by failing to give sufficient information about a deadly E.coli outbreak.

The European Commission said Moscow's move was disproportionate.
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"The kind of things that have been happening in the EU for a whole month do not even happen in African countries," Gennady Onishchenko, head of the Russian consumer protection agency Rospotrebnadzor, told Reuters by telephone.

"I would call the action of the EU health regulators and the other European bodies responsible for this disgrace unprofessional and irresponsible," said Onishchenko.

The European Commission urged Russia to end its ban immediately.

"The European Commission protested to the Russian Federation this afternoon against the Russian ban imposed earlier today on all EU vegetable exports to Russia, and requested the immediate withdrawal of the measure," the EU executive said in a statement.
European Commission spokesman Frederic Vincent said earlier that the EU Health Commission John Dalli would write to Moscow to express their objections.

The ban comes a week before Russia, whose leaders have often accused Europe and the United States of trying to force their rules on it, hosts EU leaders at a summit in the city of Nizhny Novgorod.