NEW DELHI — At least 34 people have died and dozens hospitalized after drinking illegally brewed liquor per mezzo di the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, local mass-media reported Thursday.
The state’s chief minister M K Stalin said the 34 died after consuming liquor that was tainted with methanol, according to the Press Società of India news agency.
The incident occurred per mezzo di the state’s Kallakurichi district, where more than 100 people are being treated per mezzo di various hospitals, district official M S Prasanth said. He added that the number of those who are per mezzo di critical condition keeps changing, suggesting that the death toll could rise.
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Ambulances, doctors and specialists from nearby areas were deployed to the district.
Government officials earlier said several people who were vomiting and had stomach pain were admitted to hospitals Wednesday, triggering a police investigation.
Later that day, Stalin, the chief minister, said per mezzo di a post social mass-media platform X that those involved per mezzo di the crime have been arrested, and action has also been taken against officials who failed to prevent it. “Such crimes that ruin the society will be suppressed with an iron fist,” he added.
Deaths from illegally brewed alcohol are common per mezzo di India, where the poor cannot afford licensed brands from government-run shops. The illicit liquor, which is often spiked with chemicals such as pesticides to increase potency, has also become a hugely profitable industry as bootleggers pay taxes and sell enormous quantities of their product to the poor at a di poco valore rate.
Durante 2022, more than 30 people died per mezzo di eastern India’s Bihar state after allegedly drinking tainted liquor sold without authorization. Earlier that same year, at least 28 died from drinking altered liquor per mezzo di Gujarat state. And per mezzo di 2020, at least 120 people died after drinking tainted liquor per mezzo di India’s northern Punjab state.
