Czech authorities ban liquor after 19 poisoned

PRAGUE (AFP) - The Czech health minister has placed a total ban on the sale of liquor with over 20 per cent alcohol, following 19 deaths attributed to methanol poisoning from bootleg spirits.

Friday's measure tightens up a ban on spirits with over 30 per cent alcohol being sold by street vendors and market stalls, which was introduced on Wednesday.

"We have to toughen up this measure," health minister Leos Heger said on public television on Friday, Most of the deaths, in the country's worst wave of alcohol poisonings in three decades, were due to drinks bought in shops and restaurants, he said.

The first case of methanol poisoning in the capital Prague had also been discovered, he added.