Hooch tragedy: Death toll climbs to 107 due to spurious liquor

Canning (WB) - 15 Dec 2011 (PTI): Spurious liquor claimed 50 more lives on Thursday morning in South 24 Parganas district, taking the death toll in one of the worst hooch tragedies inWest Bengalto 107.

Another 50 people are battling for their lives in several hospitals including some in Kolkata after drinking the toxic brew, official sources said.

The deaths were reported from various hospitals since early morning, they said.

Most of the dead were poor labourers, rickshaw-pullers and hawkers, who fell ill after consuming spurious liquor from several illegal joints on Wednesday.

Postmortem of all the 107 bodies has been done and the bodies were handed over to the families of the victims.

The state government on Wednesday announced a compensation of Rs two lakh each to the families of the deceased.