In West Bengal, the death toll in the hooch tragedy rose to 167 today with 19 more casualties reported from three hospitals. The police arrested two more persons in connection with the incident. Health department sources said more deaths are feared as the condition of several of the victims was critical.

The hooch victims including labourers, rickshaw pullers and hawkers were admitted to Diamond Harbour sub-divisional hospital in South 24 Parganas district and M R Bangur Hospital and National Medical Hospital in Kolkata.

About 90 victims were receiving treatment at the Diamond Harbour Hospital where the condition of two was critical. Police said, the postmortem on most of the bodies have been done and the bodies have been handed over to the respective families.

The police nabbed two more persons from near Sangrampur village and the nearby area in South 24 Parganas district raising the total number of those arrested to 12. The owner of the hooch den was still absconding. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced a CID inquiry into the tragedy.

The victims fell ill after consuming spurious liquor from several illegal joints on Tuesday night. Preliminary investigations suggest that the deaths occurred due to methyl alcohol toxicity which led to respiratory and cardiac failure.