Tourism officials in Greece have launched a campaign against bars serving “bombes”, cocktails of spirits that are being blamed for increasingly bad behaviour in tourist resorts.
There are fears that some unscrupulous bar owners are lacing cheap drinks with potentially-lethal doses of industrial spirit.
Doctors have likened the cocktails to a “small bomb that goes off in the brain” and adulterated alcohol is being blamed for the death of a British teenager on the island of Zakynthos.
Police and scientists now plan to carry out random checks of nightclubs and bars to test the drinks being served.
The Greek authorities are also cracking down on alcohol-fuelled tourists, mainly young Britons, running amok in resorts across the country.
Several were arrested last week in the resort of Malia on Crete. Local prosecutor Nikos Markakis described events there as “an uncontrollable situation”.
The Guardian 09/08/08 page 24