India raids moonshiners as 107 die

The toll has been confirmed at 107 dead with more than 100 victims still in hospitals in South 24 Parganas district and in the capital Kolkata, officials said. Up to 70 people were in a critical condition and more were arriving at the hospitals.

''More and more people are turning up with symptoms of liquor poisoning and one local hospital is now overcrowded,'' district administrator N.S. Nigam said.

Deaths attributed to toxic alcohol are common in India. The liquor is often spiked with methyl alcohol and industrial spirits and, mixed wrongly, can cause vomiting, blindness and death.

Also known as desi, daru, toddy or moonshine, the brew is mixed in illegal backyard stills, most often using molasses and the fragrant flowers of the mahua tree. It costs as little as five rupees (9¢) for a small plastic bagful.

Most of those killed were labourers and rickshaw drivers, but several children also died.

The scale of deaths has prompted a government crackdown on an industry usually tolerated in exchange for bribes to police and local authorities. Police have ransacked four breweries.

The Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, said attempts to shut down the illegal brewing were resisted by those with a vested interest in it continuing, without saying what those interests were.

She promised 200,000 rupees ($3740) in compensation to each of the families of those killed but said she would not push for tougher anti-alcohol laws. ''I am not in favour of people drinking liquor, but I also don't believe in instructing people on whether to drink fruit juice or liquor.''

Other states are less reticent. Last week, the western state of Gujarat passed a law making the illegal manufacture of alcohol punishable by death.

India has one of the faster growing legal alcohol markets in the world.