Czechs Ban Spirits Sales After Bootleg Booze Kills 19
The Czech Republic indefinitely banned all sales of liquor with more than 20 percent alcohol on Friday after 19 people died from drinking bootleg vodka and rum containing poisonous methanol.
Authorities have tried for a week to find the source of the central European country’s worst outbreak of alcohol-related deaths in decades.
The Health Ministry had already banned the sale of spirits by street vendors and market stalls on Wednesday to combat the outbreak after the first deaths happened last weekend in the Moravian-Silesian region, 350 km (220 miles) east of Prague.
Health Minister Leos Heger said the ban had been widened to include bars, restaurants, shops and supermarkets after evidence showed some of the tainted alcohol was bought there.
“The initial ban … was widened to a total ban everywhere, starting today,” Heger said in a broadcast on Czech Television.