MANAGUA – Three people died after consuming tainted liquor in Leon, a city in western Nicaragua, officials said.

The three victims were having headaches, abdominal pain and difficulty breathing, among other problems, when they arrived at a hospital on Saturday, Oscar Danilo Rosales Hospital director Ricardo Cuadra said.

Three other patients are being treated for the same symptoms at the hospital in Leon, located 90 kilometers (56 miles) west of Managua, Cuadra said.

The three patients are responding well to treatment, the hospital director said.

All the patients arrived at the hospital in the past week, indicating that they drank tainted liquor, Cuadra said.

“We still do not know specifically what is causing these problems and we are doing all the investigations and laboratory tests to determine clearly what caused the deaths and the hospitalizations,” Cuadra said.

Forty people died in Leon in 2006 after consuming liquor tainted with methanol, press reports said.