text: Bootleg brew kills 35 in China , police nab suspects . BEIJING 1996-08-30 Police in southwest China have arrested 30 people suspected of making and selling homemade alcohol that killed 35 people and poisoned 157 , the Xinhua news agency said on Friday . A group of farmers in Huize county in the southwestern province of Yunnan were arrested for blending alcohol with methanol and selling the toxic liquor to local residents , the agency said . Between late June and July , a total of 192 people were poisoned by the toxic liquor , and 35 of them died and six were left severely handicapped , it said . Local authorities launched an investigation after they received reports of several similar deaths in the area , it said . Post-mortem examinations showed they were all caused by methanol poisoning . Police had confiscated the remainder of the poisonous liquor , Xinhua said . It gave no further details .