Toxic alcohol kills at least 50 in India's Assam

At least 50 tea garden workers have diedand nearly 200 hospitalized on Thursday night after drinking toxic liquor in northeastern India's Assam State, AFP reports citing local police Saturday.

The victims, many of them women, worked at local tea estates in the Golaghat district.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has ordered an inquiry.

A patient who drank toxic bootleg liquor is being treated on February 23, 2019. / VCG photo

State police said they arrested one man for selling the liquor, and authorities said two excise department officials were suspended for failing to take adequate precautions over the sale of the alcohol.

The deaths came less than two weeks after tainted liquor killed about 100 people in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

( CGTN )