Recent reports have revealed that at least some 19 people have reportedly died and some dozens others have also been hospitalised following their consumption of toxic alcohol from a roadside kiosk which is located in northern Morocco.
The Moroccoan Police have also arrested a 48-year-old suspect who had been in connection with the incident, the Directorate General of National Security (DGSN).
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The victims had reported to have consumed the toxic alcohol in the suspect’s store, where some of the investigators had later discovered nearly 50 litres of the poisonous liquid.
The Moroccan law had openly prohibited the sale of any form of alcohol to Muslims, but it is easily found in some bars, restaurants and stores in the country that discreetly offer it for sale behind the opaque windows or thick curtains while hiding from the law.
The hospital had also reportedly received some of the bodies of the nine victims on Tuesday, and the death toll rose to 19 on Wednesday, a local health ministry official told reporters while also adding that about 30 people were taken to the hospital in critical condition, with two still in intensive care.
In another related report, dozens of Moroccan firefighters in collaboration with soldiers battled Thursday to put out at least four infernos ripping through forests in the north of the kingdom, officials have confirmed.
According to officials, several villages had to be evacuated ahead of the flames as military water-bomber planes dropped loads in a bid to extinguish the blaze.
In soaring temperatures, and shocked by how fast the leaping flames were spreading, villagers fled their homes.
Some, where they could, herded their crucial cattle and horses upon which their livelihoods depend ahead of them.
A village in the Ksar El Kebir region of the North African nation was destroyed by the flames.
