Tripoli: Fifty-one people have died over the past three days from drinking homemade alcohol that contained poisonous methanol, Libya's health minister said on Monday.
Minister Nouri Doghman said another 330 people have been taken ill from the alcohol since Saturday, adding that while some were blinded, others went into comas or suffered kidney failure.
He says the dead range in age from 19 to 50 years old, and that Algerians and Tunisians are among the dead.
The sale and consumption of alcohol is banned in the conservative North African country. Like illegal drugs elsewhere, some Libyans turn to black market dealers to buy alcohol, which is often cooked in people's homes or deserted farms.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 00:10