KATHMANDU, Sept 1: At least 15 people have died and six are critically ill after drinking tainted homemade alcohol in Nepal, officials said on Saturday.

Five people died on Saturday after drinking the brew, following 10 deaths on Thursday and Friday, and health officials said the toll could rise.

“Fifteen people who visited the hospital complaining of headaches and stomach pains have died,” Shankar Prasad Yadav, a health official in the southern town of Janakpur, told AFP.

“Four people are undergoing treatment at the hospital and six critically ill (patients) have been referred to other hospitals in neighbouring towns,” Yadav said. More people were coming to the hospital for treatment after drinking the home brew, he added.

The town’s administration chief Ram Sharan Chimoirya said police had arrested at least half a dozen people and confiscated a large amount of homemade alcohol.

“The liquor was produced illegally by locals and people consumed it in the market. Police have already begun raiding houses and shops to destroy the tainted liquor,” Chimoirya said.—AFP