Vietnamese authorities have destroyed nearly 5,000 litres of homemade alcohol, some of which was suspected of killing eight people and poisoning 126 others, authorities confirmed Monday.
Duong Duc, deputy chairman of Phong Tho district in Lai Chau province, told dpa that villagers voluntarily handed over and destroyed 920 litres in front of local authorities.
Duong also said that 4,000 litres were seized from sales points.
Also, the Phong Tho district committee in a statement said the alcohol involved in Monday’s poisoning was “without clear origins,” adding that 40 people are still hospitalised.
All poisoned victims lived in five communes near the Chinese border, authorities said, and were poisoned after sharing a meal at a funeral last Monday evening.
Autopsies and test results showed the victims had consumed methanol, a toxic relative of ethanol that is sometimes found in homemade liquor, said Col. Bui Phong, deputy director of Lai Chau Provincial police, according to the Vietnam Net news site.
Bui said: “the level of methanol in the destroyed volumes of alcohol was many times higher than allowed”.(dpa/NAN)