TEHRAN (Reuters) - A toxic batch of homebrew alcohol has killed 22 people in southern Iran and put scores more in hospital, local officials said Tuesday.Alcohol is officially banned in the Islamic state. But those determined to break the enforced sobriety can purchase smuggled imports on the black market or buy locally made spirits.
"Some of them died after days of suffering in hospital," Hossein Ali Amiri, a judiciary official in the southern Fars province, told state television.
Amiri said 93 people had been hospitalized after drinking the brew, which doctors suspect may have contained methanol, which is toxic.
Five drinkers went blind, state media reported.
Amiri said police had arrested 20 people suspected of distributing the moonshine in the city of Shiraz, capital of Fars Province, where dozens of people sought medical help on Saturday after drinking it.
