**At least 70 people are now known to have died in India’s Gujarat state after drinking toxic illegal alcohol, police say.**Labourers in the city of Ahmedabad were admitted to hospital on Tuesday after drinking illegal brew on Monday night.
Authorities fear that the death toll could rise even further as more people are being admitted to hospital.
Most of the dead are slum dwellers. Deaths from illegally brewed alcohol are common in South Asia.
Police raided various areas of Ahmedabad after the incident but no arrests have been made.
Last year, about 150 people died from drinking tainted alcohol in the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Illegally brewed alcohol is readily found across India and is popular because it is cheap and said to be stronger than legal brews.
But it is often laced with chemicals and pesticides in an attempt to boost its strength and has often caused people to die.
Gujarat is a “dry” state where sale of alcohol is prohibited.
It is the home state of India’s independence leader, Mohandas Gandhi, who was a strong advocate of prohibition.