TEHRAN (AFP) — Twelve people have died from drinking poisoned home-made booze this week in Iran's port city of Bandar Abbas in defiance of a ban on alcohol consumption, state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.
The first fatalities were announced on Thursday, when four people were said to have died and dozens more ill from drinking spirits containing methanol.
"So far 92 have come forward suffering from drinking (poisoned) alcohol, 23 were treated as out patients and were released. Out of the remaining 69 who were hospitalised, 12 died," Farsheed Abedi, director of the Hormuzgan provincial medical faculty, was quoted as saying.
"Nine of them are in coma, out of whom six are in critical condition and may die. Two have been blinded," he added.
Abedi denied Thursday reports that the deaths and illnesses were linked to a wedding party, saying the patients came from different neighbourhoods. He did not elaborate.
Colonel Asghar Qotbzadeh, a senior police commander in Hormuzgan province was quoted by IRNA on Saturday as saying five suspects had been arrested.
He also said police are searching for more alleged culprits.
"Despite the fact that they destroyed the remaining home-made alcohol, the police were able to seize distilling equipment," Qotbzadeh was quoted as saying.
Iran is an Islamic country where the production and consumption of alcohol is strictly prohibited, except for recognised Christian minorities.
Violations are punishable by jail or the lash, but this has not stopped significant smuggling, especially across Iran's western borders.
Home-made spirits are the tipple of choice in poorer neighbourhoods, but the use of industrial chemicals in their production poses serious health risks.
In April 2007, 10 people died after drinking home-made liquor in the holy city of Qom, the site of many religious seminaries, south of Tehran.
In 2006, 15 people died from alcohol poisoning in the city of Sirjan and another 22 Iranians died in the city of Shiraz in 2004.
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