More than 30 people have died after drinking tainted liquor in India's financial hub of Mumbai, police said Friday.
Praveen Satpal, a local police constable, said 18 people died Thursday night, hours after they drank the cheap liquor in a Mumbai slum. Dozens of others fell ill and the death toll had climbed to 33 by Friday, he said.
More than two dozen others were being treated in hospitals in the Malad suburb of Mumbai.
Police have detained one man and were questioning him about illegally brewing and selling the toxic drink to poor workers in the slum.
Deaths from drinking illegally brewed alcohol are common in India because the poor cannot afford licensed liquor. Illicit liquor is often spiked with chemicals such as pesticides to increase its potency.
