Istanbul toll from tainted alcohol rises to 19 dead in 48 hours

Nineteen people who drank tainted alcohol in Istanbul have died in the past 48 hours, with dozens more being treated for poisoning, the Anadolu news agency reported Wednesday.

The figure updated a number given late Tuesday when Anadolu said 11 people had died in 24 hours. It said another 43 people were being treated in hospital.

There was no immediate comment from the health ministry.

In a statement late Tuesday, the Istanbul governorate said 110 people fell ill after drinking tainted alcohol in 2024, of which 48 had died.

Alcohol tainted with methanol is thought to be the cause, methanol being a toxic substance that can be added to liquor to increase its potency but which can cause blindness, liver damage and death.

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

The most commonly faked product is raki, Turkey's aniseed-flavoured national liquor whose price has leapt to around 1,300 lira a litre in supermarkets.

The minimum wage in Turkey is 17,000 lira a month.

Turkey's authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been accused of trying to Islamise society in the officially secular state, has often criticised the consumption of alcohol and tobacco.