At least 70 people dead after consuming toxic alcohol in Northeast India

At least 70 people have died and more than 200 are being treated in hospital after drinking toxic bootleg alcohol in north-eastern India, officials say.

Several women are among the victims, who all worked on tea plantations in Assam state.

Nearly 300 have been hospitalized. The deaths come less than two weeks after more than 100 people died in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand from drinking illegally produced alcohol, known locally as hooch or country liquor.

The Assam government has ordered investigations into two separate incidents in Golaghat and Jorhat districts.

According to the police, the number of dead is likely to increase as more people from a plantation in Golaghat, 310 km east of Guwahati, were taken to the hospital after they consumed the liquor on Thursday night.

Two people have been arrested.

"Doctors from nearby districts and other medical colleges have been rushed in to deal with the crisis," said Assam Health Minister and senior BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma, after visiting patients at Jorhat. "Every 10 minutes we are getting reports of casualties from different places," he said.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal too is expected to reach Jorhat today.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi condoled the deaths on Friday in a Facebook post, saying, "I am saddened by the incident which occurred in Assam's Golaghat area. My deepest condolences to the families of the victims. I hope that those undergoing treatments get well soon."

Police suspect the liquor was procured late Thursday night from the home of a 65-year-old woman named Dhraupadi Oran and her 30-year-old son Sanju Oran at Salmara tea garden in Golaghat. The mother and son have died.

Chief Minister Sonowal, in a press statement, said he has ordered an investigation by Upper Assam Division Commissioner Julie Sonowal. The report will be submitted in a month.

At Jorhat Medical College and Hospital, as many as 20 people - nine women and 11 men - have died.

The deaths from the two recent incidents, however, are believed to be the deadliest since a similar case killed 172 in West Bengal in 2011.