At least 31 people died and over 60 were still being treated in hospitals after consuming tainted liquor in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, a government spokesman said today.

Since yesterday, more than 100 people, suffering from vomiting, stomachache and diarrhoea, have been admitted to hospitals in the Kallakurichi district, 250 km by road from the state capital Chennai, the spokesman said.

The state government suspended at least 10 officials, including the district's collector and police chief, over the illicit liquor incident, according to a statement.

"I was shocked and saddened to hear the news. Action has also been taken against the officials who failed to prevent it," Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said in a post on X.

Police arrested Govindaraj, 49, who goes by his first name, for selling illicit liquor and also seized 200 litres of the methanol-mixed alcoholic drink, the government said.

A video from ANI, in which Reuters has a minority stake, showed healthcare officials carrying patients in ambulances at a hospital while another shot showed several people standing outside a mortuary in Kallakurichi.

More than a dozen people died last year in a similar incident in a nearby district in Tamil Nadu. 

At least 34 people, including two babies were killed when a contraband fuel depot exploded into flames in southern Benin near the border with Nigeria on Saturday.

According to Beninese Interior Minister Alassane Seidou, “a serious fire occurred in the town of Seme Podji. Another 20 people were seriously wounded in the incident.”

"I can't really give you the cause of the fire, but there is a large gasoline warehouse here and cars, tricycles and motorcycles come from morning to evening,” he added.

Nigeria is a main oil and gas producer where fuel smuggling is very common along its borders, particularly when the government maintains a subsidy to keep fuel prices low.

The majority of the victims were burnt and they could not be not be identified.

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