One of them, Turkish citizen Taskin Erduan, said shortly before his death that he had consumed imported vodka from Bulgaria because it was very cheap, AFP reports. He got a bargain: three litres of vodka for about 15 dollars (about 28 Bulgarian leva). Only two glasses were needed to kill the 51-year-old hairdresser, who worked in a salon in Istanbul.

"He came a little late that Saturday and told me he couldn't see well," said Belgin, a co-owner of the hair salon in the Ortakoy district, who did not want to give her last name.

Shortly after he arrived, Erdoan had to sit in a chair because he couldn't even hold the scissors in his hand and could see white in front of his eyes, said Belgin, who immediately took her colleague to a private hospital. There he was examined by an ophthalmologist who quickly realized it was fake alcohol poisoning.

Erdoan fell unconscious in late January. It was at this time that the city was rocked by the news that in just four days 33 people had died and 29 were admitted to hospitals in serious condition after drinking fake alcohol. Since then, the number has risen to 70, and another 63 people have died in the capital Ankara, Turkish media report. Another 36 people remain in intensive care.

Erduan told doctors he had bought the vodka from a neighbourhood shop in Ortakoy. He said it was five times cheaper than supermarkets because it was imported from Bulgaria. They gave him folic acid to try to prevent the effects of methanol, a toxic substance found in fake alcohol that can cause blindness, liver damage and death.

"He was still fully conscious," Belgin said, his eyes red from crying. A short time later, Taskin Erduan was rushed to intensive care and intubated.

"On the fourth day, we went with his son to see him. He was completely jaundiced," Belgin said, describing jaundice, another symptom of methanol poisoning. That night, the man died.

"Nobody should die like that. The alcohol looked perfectly legal from the packaging and the brand, but it actually came from an illegal distillery," said Errol Isik, another worker at the hair salon. He claimed that Taskin was not an alcoholic, never consuming alcoholic beverages in large quantities.

Professor Ahmet Ayden of Istanbul's Yeditepe University, where he heads the toxicology department, explained how dangerous fake alcohol can be.

"Just one glass of fake vodka can be deadly. No one can tell them apart - not by taste, not by sight, not by smell," he stressed.

"The biggest danger with methanol poisoning is that you don't feel the effects right away. It only manifests itself after about six hours. If a person goes straight to hospital, there is a chance of recovery. However, very quickly the situation can become complicated and it can be too late," the professor warned and urged people to be very careful.

Like the main opposition Republican People's Party, Ozgur Aybas, head of the Tekel liquor traders' association, blamed the dozens of deaths on exorbitant taxes imposed by the government.

"Nowhere else in the world have such high taxes on alcohol. People have no choice but to look for alternatives," he told AFP.

A litre bottle of aniseed brandy from a supermarket currently costs around $35 in Turkey.

Outside the now-closed shop from which Taskin Erduan bought his Bulgarian vodka, neighbour Levent, who did not give his surname, also blamed high taxes for the tragedy.

"Alcohol is too expensive in Turkey. A bottle of brandy costs about 100 Turkish liras, but with the tax it becomes 1,200 liras," or the equivalent of 12 hours of work at minimum wage. People (who produce fake alcohol - ed.) do everything to make a little more money. They have no shame anymore," he said. | BGNES, AFP