On Saturday evening local residents had staged a rasta roko at Kamani traffic signal following the tragedy.

According to local residents at least nine persons had died and another nine had taken seriously ill between Tuesday and Saturday evening after consuming the spurious liquor in the Bail Bazar/Sandesh Nagar area in Kurla (west).

The victims had complained of severe stomach pain, vomiting and breathlessness.

However, Kurla police confirmed only six deaths in the area so far.

Surekha Yadav (35) said her husband Suresh (40) was the first victim of the tragedy and died on Tuesday afternoon. He complained to severe pain the stomach, bouts of vomiting, headache and breathlessness beforehe was declared dead, she added.

Johnny Peter Gomes (35), the bread-winner of the family, suffered similarly. He was declared dead before admission to Rajawadi Hospital.

A relative of another victim Anand Jadhav said two local doctors could not diagnose the symptoms. Anand was finally rushed to Rajawadi Hospital, where he died within six hours.

The names of some others available with this newspaper known to have died after consuming the liquor between April 13-17 are: Kishore Tinde (22), Kashinath Pawar (50), Bapu Ratna Chavan, Mahendra Solanki, Nanasaheb Pandurang Yadav and Vijay Bhore. Mathew George Mathew has been admitted to Rajawadi Hospital on Saturday morning and his condition is stated to be serious.

Investigations have revealed that there are about 18 spurious liquor haath bhatti manufacturing units in the area. The brew, often contaminated with lead from batteries and other trash, is sold by 30-odd bootleggers operating in the area. All bootleggers have fled the area following thetragedy. No arrests have been made so far, the police said.