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19 people have died in Morocco from drinking contaminated alcoholic beverages

September 29, 2022 at 3:54 pm

Close-up of a pint glass of amber ale beer, December 24, 2021. [Gado/Getty Images]

19 people in northern Morocco have died of poisoning after drinking contaminated alcoholic drinks, local media reported on Wednesday.

Several news websites said that the city of Al-Qasr Al-Kabir witnessed the death of nine people on Tuesday after drinking “bad alcohol”.

The Al-Youm 24 website quoted the local representative of the Ministry of Health, Amiran Shawqi, as saying that “the total number of deaths rose to 19 people” on Wednesday.

He added that “other cases were critical, but they were discharged from the ICU”, noting that the ages of the victims ranged between 35 and 50 years old.

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The official explained that the bodies of the victims were taken to a hospital in the neighbouring city of Tangiers for autopsy, to check the causes of death.

Hespress news website reported that the autopsy was ordered by the Public Prosecution “after recording the suspicious deaths of a group of people after consuming an alcoholic substance harmful to public health that caused their death.”

The news website added that the police arrested a 48-year-old person in the city of Ksar El-Kabir on Tuesday, who has a criminal record, on suspicion of being involved in the sale of alcoholic substances harmful to public health and causing the death of those who consumed it.