Nineteen Dead of Methanol Poisoning in Central Europe

Nineteen people have been killed and at least twenty-four more blinded or in medically induced comas after drinking methanol.

All of the victims had consumed cheap vodka or rum which had been cut with methanol.

Most of them lived in the Czech Republic, but Poland and Slovakia have also held some of the victims.

Black marketers use methanol to stretch alcohol, ensuring higher profits.

The Czech Republic has temporarily banned the sale of alcohol with percentages higher than thirty percent, and suggested that residents not drink alcohol if it's maker is unknown.

Police raids, at four hundred and ten locations, found seventy cases of the illegal alcohol.