NEW DELHI: At least 99 people have died and scores have been hospitalized in northern India after drinking toxic alcohol, triggering a crackdown against bootleggers, officials said Monday.
News of the deaths in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand has trickled in over the past three days, with police suspecting the moonshine had been cut with methanol.
Cheap, locally-made liquor is common in parts of rural India and bootleggers often add methanol — a highly toxic form of alcohol sometimes used as an anti-freeze — to their product to increase its strength.
If ingested in large quantities, methanol can cause blindness, liver damage and death.
In one district of Uttar Pradesh 59 people had died after consuming toxic alcohol, police spokesman Shailendra Kumar Sharma told AFP.
In a neighboring district a senior police officer said nine had died, adding that 66 suspected bootleggers had been arrested and samples of the liquor sent to a laboratory for testing.
Police said at least 31 people died in neighboring Uttarakhand state and that two had been arrested on suspicion of supplying the liquor.
Newspaper reports said around 3,000 people linked with the illegal trade were arrested across Uttar Pradesh in the aftermath of the tragedy.
Hundreds of poor people die every year in India due to alcohol poisoning, mostly from consuming cheap alcohol.
In 2015, more than 100 people died in a Mumbai slum after drinking illegal moonshine.
Of the estimated 5 billion liters of alcohol drunk every year in India, around 40 percent is illegally produced, according to the International Spirits and Wine Association of India.
At least 99 dead after consuming toxic alcohol in India
At least 99 dead after consuming toxic alcohol in India
- Officials suspect high levels of methanol chemical were added to the locally-made liquor
- The chemical can cause blindness, liver damage and death if ingested in large quantities
Australia to deploy long-range reconnaissance plane to Gulf
- The government says there are about 115,000 Australian nationals across the Middle East, of whom about 2,600 have returned home.
SYDNEY: Australia will deploy a long-range military reconnaissance plane to the Gulf to protect civilians, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday.
An E-7A Wedgetail aircraft and supporting defense force personnel will be sent for an initial period of four weeks to help “protect and secure the airspace above the Gulf,” Albanese told a news conference.
Australia also plans to provide advanced, medium-range air-to-air missiles to the United Arab Emirates “in response to a request,” the prime minister said.
The UAE, in which there are an estimated 24,000 Australians, has shot down more than 1,500 rockets and drones fired by Iran in reprisal following US-Israeli strikes, he said.
Albanese said he decided to send the advanced radar surveillance plane to the Gulf following a discussion with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
“The first priority of my government is, and always will be, to keep Australians safe,” the prime minister said.
“Helping Australians means also helping the UAE and other Gulf nations to defend themselves against what are unprovoked attacks,” he added.
“My government has been clear that we’re not taking offensive action against Iran, and we’ve been clear that we are not deploying Australian troops on the ground in Iran.”
The government says there are about 115,000 Australian nationals across the Middle East, of whom about 2,600 have returned home.
“Significant challenges remain, and further work is underway to support those still seeking to leave,” Albanese said.
Australia said last week it had deployed a heavy transport plane and a fuel transport plane to the Middle East as part of plans to get its citizens out of the region.
Canberra has been careful to make clear that its forces are not engaging in offensive operations against Iran.
On Friday, Albanese revealed that Australian military personnel were aboard an American submarine that sank an Iranian navy ship off Sri Lanka.
The personnel were on the submarine as part of training arrangements under AUKUS, a multi-decade defense pact with Britain and the United States, he said, stressing that they did not take part in the attack.
