At least 16 people died after taking what police called spurious liquor amid a ban on the drug item in the Indian state of Bihar.
Eight of the deaths were reported on Friday when local police picked up at least five people, including two women, for interrogation in connection with hooch deaths, reports the Hindustan Times.
The rest victims died since Wednesday. All 16 deaths took place in the West Champaran district.
The sale and consumption of liquor is banned in Bihar since April 2016.
Spurious alcohol deaths are often reported in India, where people often drink cheap country-made bootleg liquor. At least 25 people died after drinking toxic alcohol in northern India in late May.
Last year, 98 people died in the northern state of Punjab after drinking bootleg booze. And in 2019, some 150 people died in north-eastern Assam state, most of them tea plantation workers.
