Ten people have died after drinking homemade hooch in a holy city in Iran, where the consumption of all alcohol is banned, the Kayhan newspaper reported on Sunday. “On April 2, a large quantity of bootlegged alcohol was distributed in Qom,” Iran’s clerical capital and the home of many religious seminaries, south of Tehran, it said. “A number of the drinkers were hospitalised and according to the inhabitants of Qom, 10 people have died,” the ultra-conservative daily added.It said that local officials had yet to confirm the death toll. It is not the first time that toxic moonshine has claimed lives in Iran, an Islamic country where the production and consumption of alcohol is generally strictly prohibited.