Nineteen people who drank tainted alcohol in İstanbul have died in the past 48 hours, with dozens more being treated for poisoning, Agence France-Presse reported, citing the state-run Anadolu news agency.
The figure updated a number released late Tuesday, when Anadolu said 11 people had died in 24 hours. It said another 43 people were being treated in hospitals.
There was no immediate comment from the health ministry.
In a statement late Tuesday, the İstanbul Governor’s Office said 110 people fell ill after drinking tainted alcohol in 2024, of which 48 had died.
Alcohol tainted with methanol is thought to be the cause, with methanol being a toxic substance that can be added to liquor to increase its potency but which can cause blindness, liver damage and death.
Poisonings from adulterated alcohol are quite common in Turkey, where private production has shot up as authorities crank up taxes on alcoholic beverages.
The most commonly faked product is raki, Turkey’s aniseed-flavored national liquor whose price has leapt to around 1,300 lira ($37.20) a liter in supermarkets.
The minimum wage in Turkey is 17,000 lira ($489) a month.
Turkey’s authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been accused of trying to Islamize society in the officially secular state, has often criticized the consumption of alcohol and tobacco.