8 Mourners Die of Drink That Killed Man They Buried

A Ukrainian wake turned to drunken revelry and then disaster when mourners imbibed the same poisonous drink that had killed the man they had just buried, the official Tass news agency reported Monday.

Eight people died and 80 were hospitalized after drinking the black-market industrial spirit at the wake in the village of Zabolotye, near the Polish border, Tass said.

The affair began when the local schoolteacher and a farm mechanic celebrated the delivery of furniture with a drinking spree. The mechanic died the next day and the schoolmaster fell ill but, fearing for his reputation, kept silent, Tass said.

He died a few days later and was buried without an autopsy. After the ill-fated wake, where the industrial spirit was set on the table with other strong drink, autopsies were performed on all the dead including the disinterred schoolmaster.