Thiruvananthapuram, May 24 (IANS): Two daily wage earners, around 50 years of age, were found dead in their adjacent homes in Kerala's Alappuzha district on Monday, having allegedly drunk sanitiser, police said.

According to the Kuthiathodu police, they said the deceased were neighbours and the empty bottles of sanitiser and glasses were found near them.

"The actual cause of death would be known only when the autopsy report comes. We have begun a probe into the cause of the death," said a police official.

Ever since the state's daily Covid cases started rising substantially, the state government decided to close down all liquor vends, both government and private, from April 26.

As per an earlier study, 32.9 lakh people -- 29.8 lakh men and 3.1 lakh women -- out of the 3.34 crore population in the state consume liquor, and out of these, around five lakh people consume liquor on a daily basis. Of this, 83,851 people, including 1.043 women, are addicted to alcohol, according to state government statistics.