Story highlights Death toll rises to 71, with ages ranging from 18 to 60, state-run radio reports

The first deaths were people who drank the brew after returning from a funeral

(CNN) A homemade alcoholic drink has reportedly killed 71 people and sickened nearly 200 others in a village in Mozambique.

The fatal victims ranged in ages from 18 to 60, state-run Mozambique Radio said. More than three dozen people remained hospitalized Tuesday, the outlet said.

A group of people returning from a funeral stopped off late Friday in an area where customers can buy a popular home brew -- made from sorghum, bran corn and sugar, and known as Phombe -- according to state-run Radio Mozambique.

By Saturday morning, dead bodies of those who drank the Phombe began arriving at a hospital, the radio station reported, citing Paula Bernardo, a health official in the district of Cahora Bassa.

"As we prepared to determine the cause of death, many more people began to arrive with diarrhea and other muscle aches," Bernardo said. "Then many dead bodies from several neighborhoods were brought in, which aroused our attention."

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