Hanoi - Six people in the same family died after drinking an herb-infused rice wine after an exorcism in a northern Vietnamese village, police and local news agencies said Wednesday. The six people, aged from 34 to 47, died early Tuesday only a few hours after they drank a bottle of rice wine with roots of a wild plant inside, said Tran Minh Hong, head of the social crime investigation department of Cao Bang province, 280 kilometres north of Hanoi.
"We don't know yet what kind of plant it is, but local people often drink rice wine mixed with herbal plants for good health," Hong said.
Nong Thi Loi, 63, became sick Monday night after having a sip from the bottle of wine mixed with wild roots she had gathered in a forest near Tuong village over the weekend, according to the Vietnam News Agency.
Loi might have mistaken the poisonous ngon plant for safe herbs, the agency said.
Thinking that Loi had fallen victim to an evil spirit, the family invited a local magician to the home to hold an exorcism, the newspaper said.
After the ceremony, Loi's son Nong Van Thiem, his brother and four other relatives drank the rest of the bottle and died.
Home-distilled rice wine, known as "ruou," is common in mountainous northern Vietnam and is often infused with plants or wild animals, including snakes, geckos and crows.
