While 10 people died at Sangrampur village in the early hours on Wednesday after drinking from some liquor joints near the Sangrampur railway station, 47 died in two hospitals where they were admitted, official sources said.
Labourers, rickshaw-pullers and hawkers were among the dead, they said.
The condition of over 100 people admitted to the hospitals in Diamond Harbour and Sangrampur was serious, the sources said, adding they had symptoms of severe stomach ache, vomiting and loose motion.
A medical team has been rushed to the area from Kolkata, Sunderban Affairs Minister Shyamal Mandal said.
Locals smashed a liquor manufacturing unit at Mograhat and the joints from where it was being sold at Sangrampur.
The state government announced compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of those who died.
State Public Health Engineering Minister Subrata Mukherjee announced the compensation in the assembly.
Union minister Mukul Roy, District Magistrate N S Nigam, SP L N Meena, Zilla Parishad Sabhadipati S Sheikh and CPI-M leaders Rezzak Mollah and Sujon Chakrabarty visited the hospitals.
Video: Dipak Chakroborty/Rediff.com
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