Alcohol poisoning kills 17 in Turkey

At least 17 people died and another 22 are receiving hospital treatment after drinking tainted alcohol, Turkish media reported on Wednesday.

Eight people suspected of having supplied the alcoholic beverages have been detained, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.

Last week, authorities announced that they had seized 410 liters of ethanol and methanol, as well as 165 bottles of contraband alcohol and equipment used in the production of alcoholic drinks.

Poisonings from adulterated alcohol are quite common in Turkey, where private production has exploded as authorities have cranked up taxes on alcoholic drinks.

At the end of 2021, at least 25 people died over the space of a few days in several different regions. A year before that, around 40 people died of alcohol poisoning.

Raki, the aniseed-flavored national alcoholic beverage, costs around 1,300 lira ($37.40) a liter in the supermarket, in a country where the minimum wage is 17,000 lira ($489) a month.

Turkey's authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has often criticized the consumption of alcohol and tobacco.