Czech bootleg alcohol has 19 victims

[Kerbe]

At least 19 people in the Czech Republic have died after drinking bootleg alcohol, officials have said.

The spirits were made from industrial chemical methanol and at least a further 22 people have been taken to hospital with alcohol poisoning.

Police have arrested a 36-year-old man in connection with the deaths.

Emergency measures have been imposed banning the sale of hard alcohol and authorities are carrying out searches to try to find the source of the drink.

Sweeps are being done of restaurants, bars, off-licences and shops across the country.

Some of those taken to hospital have gone blind after consuming the alcohol, with others being put into artificial comas by doctors.

The BBC's correspondent in Prague, Rob Cameron, says those poisoned were taken ill after drinking what they thought was vodka and rum bought in supermarkets and shops.

The company behind the brand thought to be the source of the poisoning has said that their labels were copied and that they are not responsible for the contents of those bottles.

"We have no evidence of any one person being behind the poisonings," deputy police president Vaclav Kucera told Czech TV, according to the AFP news agency.

"Everything seems to suggest there's a single source, but I cannot rule out that there are more," he added.

The deaths have been described as the Czech Republic's worst case of fatal alcohol poisoning in 30 years.


The 2012 mess begins. Worst thing is, after multiple victims died, the people kept buying those cheap bottles of vodka, rum and so on, not considering the threat of becoming blind from consuming the methanol, or even dying... Border police will issue high fines to those who sell over 30% alcohol anywhere in the Czech Republic. There is a discussion about temporary prohibiting dealing with any alcohol, until the source of the alcohol combined with methanol is found. However, the government predicts it would cause raise of black market in the Czech Republic.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19578889, updated with the datas from Czech TV.

[Gandalf]

Did Polish vodka reach Czech ?  :roll:

[Taylor_P]

Prohibition almost never solves anything and only creates more problems then it would originally solve, Alcohol is an acceptable vise, too bad most people dont see Marry Jane like this too, yet you can smoke cancer giving cigs.

[Dolfagr]

Did Polish vodka reach Czech ?  :roll:

 

[Jubin]

Did Polish vodka reach Czech ?  :roll:

Oh come on if anything Czechs should be the ones exporting their alcohol to Poland.

[Dolfagr]

My favorite drink apart CC right there. Other than, since it's rare to get it, I'd never drink something if I didn't know it was legit.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P-d4RuFhc0&feature=related

[Gandalf]

My favorite drink apart CC right there. Other than, since it's rare to get it, I'd never drink something if I didn't know it was legit.

Problem is some shopkeepers drink their own sales products and replace it with home-made stuf....

[Kerbe]

Well, there are speculations that these alcohol comes from our Poland neighbours, as it was found near the Czech-Poland borders and the Poland itself has experienced similar issues. And yeah, Gandalf is right, police has confirmed it was most probably home made alcohol, not sure if made here or in Poland. Meanwhile, 38 people are still in hospital.