A 47-year-old man at Mponela in Dowa has died after drinking locally distilled spirit, popularly known as kachasu, on an empty stomach.

The deceased has been identified as Sendelesi Tambala 47, from Kawale village in the area of Traditional Authority Kayembe in the district.

The incident occurred on December 8, 2020 at Kaphiri Primary School.

It is said that Tambala was constructing toilets at Kaphiri primary school. On December 7,2020 after knocking off, he went to drink kachasu and he got himself drunk.

On December 8,2020 he woke up with hangover but still proceeded to his workplace. Due to the said hangover, he failed to work and so he went to drink again with the intention of getting rid of the hangover and have the energy to get back to work.

At around noon hour he came back drunk and said he was too tired to work. He told his colleagues that he needed to rest for a while. He then walked to a tree nearby and rested in the shade under it.

He slept and never woke up from the sleep. When others went to check on him, they noticed that he was dead.

The matter was reported to police at Mbingwa Police Unit.  Upon receipt of the report, police officers accompanied by a medical officer from Mbingwa Health center visited the scene and viewed the body.  Postmortem conducted revealed the cause of death as due to hypoglycemia.

Police have since advised people to make sure they eat properly before taking any alcohol.