NEW DELHI: The death toll from drinking tainted liquor in a Mumbai slum climbed to 84 in the worst incident of its kind in more than a decade, police said Saturday.

Another 31 people, 13 of them in serious condition, were being treated in hospitals after drinking the cheap liquor Wednesday night in Malad, said Deputy Commissioner Dhananjay Kulkarni. They fell sick immediately.

Take a look: India's deadly moonshine in the spotlight

Malad is a northern part of India's financial capital.

Kulkarni said the police have arrested five people who transported and sold the tainted liquor to poor workers.

Victims first started to fall ill on Wednesday morning after consuming the illegal booze and patients were still being admitted to hospital on Saturday, the commissioner said.

The Press Trust of India news agency said eight police personnel have been suspended for negligence of duty.

Deaths from illegally brewed alcohol are common in India because the poor cannot afford licensed liquor. Illicit liquor is often spiked with chemicals such as pesticides to increase its potency.

In 2004, 104 people had died after drinking spurious liquor in Mumbai's Vikhroli area.

In January, more than 31 people died near Lucknow in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh after drinking a lethal batch of home-brew. Furthermore, police arrested 12 people in October 2013 after more than three dozen villagers died from toxic liquor also in Uttar Pradesh.

Read: Death toll from toxic liquor hits 31 in India

In 2011 nearly 170 people died in the eastern state of West Bengal after drinking moonshine.

Read more: Toxic liquor leaves village of widows