Media outlets announced on Sunday that 53 people have died as a result of a hazardous illegal alcohol batch in India, with more victims passing away in hospitals from the noxious mixture.
According to M.K. Stalin, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu state, 37 people died within hours of consuming the illicit booze on Tuesday because the locally manufactured arrack drink was spiked with deadly methanol.
Some of the more than 100 patients who were taken to the hospital by ambulance couldn’t be saved.
Although inexpensive alcohol produced at shady distilleries kills hundreds of people in India each year, this poisoning is among the deadliest in recent memory.
To increase its potency, the liquor is often spiked with methanol which can cause blindness, liver damage and death.
The Indian Express newspaper on Sunday quoted a local councillor, Palraj, describing how poor labourers in Kallakurichi district regularly bought the liquor in plastic bags costing 60 rupees ($0.70), which they would drink before work.
Some went blind and were rushed to hospital.
Others died rapidly, collapsing in the street.
