Deadly bootleg alcohol kills at least 28 in northern India
Spectators at a Sunday cricket match make up the majority of the 28 victims who bought liquor from village shop known to police for offering cheap illegal booze
A bad batch of bootleg liquor killed at least 28 people and sent 160 others to hospitals in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, officials said on Tuesday.
Many of the victims were among more than 200 people who had gathered to watch a cricket match on Sunday evening in a village about 30 kilometres southwest of the state capital, Lucknow, government official Anil Garg said.
By noon on Tuesday, 28 people had died, including 11 in another village further southwest, police officer Mukul Goel said.
Doctors in Lucknow said that some of those hospitalised were in serious condition and relying on artificial ventilation, and that some had lost their eyesight.
Police arrested the shop owner who sold the 200-millilitre pouches of the homemade alcohol. A raid of the shop uncovered large containers of chemicals, which have been sent to a laboratory for testing, district official RK Pandey said.