Almost 90 people have now been killed by drinking poisoned alcohol, says the Ministry of Health, but no more hospitalizations have taken place in the past few days.

The health ministry issued a statement on 17 March saying that 87 people had died from the incident, with a further 15 people blinded and a total of 1,044 cases recorded by the authorities.

It still remains unclear whether the cases were caused by deliberate poisoning or by accident. The alcohol is believed to have been home-made by a producer in Tripoli.