More people hospitalized in Bursa from bootleg alcohol

BURSA

Two more people have been hospitalized due to alleged bootleg alcohol consumption in the northwestern province of Bursa that has seen a number of alcohol poisoning over the past week.

Two men, aged 62 and 56, who live in different districts of the city, fell ill after consuming suspected bootleg alcohol, and were taken to hospital.

They are suffering from loss of sight and are in critical condition.

Fourteen people in Bursa have already been admitted to hospitals due to alcohol poisoning this week and three of them lost their lives.

Following the recent poisoning from bootleg alcohol in Bursa, security forces detained five people for alleged links to counterfeit alcohol distribution.

Turkey has cracked down on bootleg liquor production after at least 92 people in the country died of alcohol poisoning in the last 70 days.

On Dec. 17 alone, security forces seized more than 1,170 liters of bootleg alcohol in operations conducted in Bursa and the Kuşadası district of the western Aydın province.

In a search conducted at a cargo office in Bursa, a huge amount of counterfeit alcohol was seized.

In a separate operation in Kuşadası, provincial gendarme teams seized 170 liters of ethyl alcohol and 447 bottles of counterfeit liquor.

Bootleg alcohol is made using low-cost methyl alcohol instead of ethyl alcohol, which causes serious harm to human health and even death.