Six people died and more than 150 have been hospitalized in Papua New Guinea after drinking a mixture of ethanol and methanol over the weekend, the National newspaper reported on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th September, 2021) Six people died and more than 150 have been hospitalized in Papua New Guinea after drinking a mixture of ethanol and methanol over the weekend, the National newspaper reported on Wednesday.
"The dead are five men and a woman. One was an Aiyura Aircraft Maintenance Engineering school student and the rest were villagers from around Obura-Wonenara's Aiyura," the local authorities were cited as saying by the newspaper.
Ethanol was illegally siphoned from the supplies delivered to the Coffee Institute Corporation on Friday, according to the report. The stolen alcohol was then sold in the neighboring villages over the weekend. First patients began arriving in the hospital as early as Monday morning, the news said.
The local police reportedly found five of the 80 containers of ethanol either emptied or partially emptied. The authorities seized the containers as evidence and launched an investigation, the National said.
The source of the methanol in the alcohol mix was not mentioned. The identity of the ethanol suppliers, who went into hiding immediately as the news of the mass alcohol poisoning had spread, is yet to be established.
Papua New Guinea enforces a ban on the sale of alcohol on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
