Tainted liquor has killed at least 15 people and sickened several others in a town in southern Nepal, state-run Radio Nepal said Saturday. The deaths occurred Thursday and Friday on the outskirts of Janakpur, a town about 300 kilometers (180 miles) south of Katmandu, the capital, it said. The victims bought the liquor from a local distillery that illegally produced it from rice and millet, the National News Agency reported. Police arrested five people working at the distillery, said Ram Sharan Chimoria, the chief government administrator. Laboratory tests were being carried out to determine what caused the deaths, he told The Associated Press. Deaths from tainted alcohol are frequent in Nepalese villages, where locally made liquor is often mixed with banned methyl alcohol to make it stronger.
