Two Britons have died in agony after drinking rice wine laced with methanol in a mass poisoning on the Indonesian island of Bali. Alan Colen, 59, suffered a painful, drawn-out death on Saturday after buying an adulterated bottle of local wine, known as arak. Mr Colen, who had lived on the holiday island for 13 years, bought the wine from a roadside stall near his home in Canggu, North Kuta.

Rose Johnson, 48, a successful painter who was based in Phoenix, Arizona, died early on Monday in the eastern Sanur tourist area of Bali after drinking from the same batch of poisoned arak. She was on holiday on the island.

The Britons are among 21 people who have died over the past week from alcohol poisoning. Two other tourists, Rachel Craig, 22, from the Irish Republic, and Rene Puper, 23, her Dutch boyfriend, have also been named as victims. Nineteen Balinese remain seriously ill in hospital.

Mr Colen, a former sailor with the Indonesian Navy, was found unconscious on the floor of his home by his Balinese wife on Saturday afternoon. By the time that he arrived at Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar, Bali’s main town, he was suffering seizures and was declared dead soon after.

“There was nothing we could do for him”, Dr Ida Bagus Alit, of Sanglah Hospital, told The Times. “When methanol gets into the bloodstream the victim deteriorates very quickly. It attacks the eyes, the liver and the kidneys. A very small amount of methanol — as little as 60ml — can kill you”. Dr Alit said that a post-mortem examination had found high concentrations of methanol in Mr Colen’s blood.

Police have arrested the owner and two employees of a small Denpasar rice wine factory, after finding three 650 gallon drums of arak that contained traces of methanol — a toxic chemical compound often used as an anti-freeze or solvent.

Police said that the men, who run the Tri Hita Karya factory were suspected of “producing and selling alcohol containing methanol which can cause death . . . We are investigating whether they did it on purpose”. Officers had not ruled out the possibility that the methanol was added to the wine after it had left the factory, the police spokesman added.

All the victims are believed to have drunk from the same batch of arak, which was distributed to shops and roadside stalls in four different districts of Bali. Many are reported to have died in agony, some complaining of excruciating pain in their eyes and vomiting blood before they died. Arak, which is made from fermented rice, palm sap and corn or other base ingredients, is a traditional drink for many Balinese and is commonly used in religious ceremonies. However, it has become increasingly popular with tourists after the Indonesian Government’s measures against imported alcohol increased the price of wine and spirits.

Arak-based cocktails are common in the many cheap bars frequented by tourists, while locals buy it in large quantities from roadside stalls and mix it with soft drinks to consume at home.

The Tri Hita Karya factory is one of scores of small “home industries” producing arak that have sprung up in recent years. It sold its wine to souvenir shops as well as roadside stalls and bars. A police operation is under way to remove suspect arak from shop shelves.

Ida Bagus Ngurah Wijaya, the head of Bali’s tourism board, blamed the deaths on a combination of the prohibitive price of imported alcohol and a lack of regulation of arak producers. “This is a big problem for Bali”, Mr Wijaya said. “Alcohol imports are controlled but there are no controls on these small home industries. The trouble is that the price of imported alcohol is so high that tourists on a budget prefer to buy the local drink and now they are dying”. His organization was lobbying the Government for more regulation of producers, he said.

News by Times Online – timesonline.co.uk