• Officials have ordered a crackdown on illegal distillers.
• Hundreds die annually from cheap alcohol produced in backstreet distilleries in India, police say.
• Authorities crack down on illegal liquor stores around Gujarat.

AHMEDABAD, India: 42 people have died and almost 100 more have been taken to the hospital in western India because they drank toxic alcohol, police said Thursday. Officials have ordered a crackdown on illegal distillers.

Earlier this week, dozens of Gujarat state residents were ill after drinking methanol, a deadly kind of alcohol frequently used as antifreeze, that was marketed in multiple areas.

Ashok Yadav, a senior police official, told AFP that 31 people had since perished in the Botad district.

One more senior police official confirmed to AFP that another 11 people were killed in the adjoining Ahmedabad district.

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Harsh Sanghavi, the state’s minister of internal affairs, said in a statement that the victims’ deaths were caused by their consumption of industrial-grade methanol.

Sanghavi said that 97 people had been taken to the hospital, and two of them were in very bad shape.

Gujarat, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi lives, is one of several Indian states where it is illegal to sell or drink alcohol.

On Wednesday, state police head Ashish Bhatia stated that authorities have cracked down on illegal liquor stores around Gujarat and have detained a number of people.

In India, hundreds of people die annually from cheap alcohol produced in backstreet distilleries.

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