Chinese province cracks down on bootleg alcohol

The northern Chinese province of Shanxi is taking measures to crack down on fatal counterfeit spirits after 27 people died and over 200 others were admitted to hospital recently after consuming bootleg beverages with a high methanol content, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

Local authorities have confiscated some 4,000 tons of bulk alcohol and over 10,000 bottles of spirits.

Dealers have been ordered to stop selling bulk spirits immediately and local residents have been urged to give up counterfeit products in their possession.

Authorities in the provincial capital, Taiyuan, have also ordered the closure of an underground methanol trade network.

Some 9,800 bottles of suspected spirits confiscated by police and local courts have also been tested, the agency said.

On Saturday the Chinese media reported that two suspects had been arrested and 33 others were being questioned in connection with the production of the bootleg poisonous alcohol .

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.