At least 34 people have died and more than 100 have been taken to hospital after drinking illegally brewed alcohol in Tamil Nadu in southern India, a senior official has said.
The state’s chief minister M K Stalin said they had consumed liquor tainted with methanol, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
More than 100 people suffering from vomiting, stomach ache and diarrhoea have been admitted to hospitals in the Kallakurichi district since Wednesday – and more than 60 are still being treated, a government spokesperson for the state said on Thursday.
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A police chief is among at least 10 officials who have been suspended in the district over the incident.
A video from the ANI news agency, which is part-owned by Reuters news agency, showed healthcare officials carrying patients in ambulances at a hospital, while another showed several people standing outside a mortuary.
M S Prasanth, a senior state official, told the Press Trust of India the number listed in critical condition keeps changing, suggesting the death toll could rise.
Ambulances, doctors and specialists from nearby areas have been deployed to the district.
A 49-year-old man named as Govindaraj has been arrested by police for selling illegal alcohol and officers have seized 200 litres of the methanol-mixed alcoholic drink, officials said.
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Last year, more than a dozen people died in a similar incident in a nearby district in Tamil Nadu.
Kallakurichi is located around 150 miles (250km) from the state capital, Chennai.
