Andres Lorente,a 50 year old man visited a café in Spain on Sunday afternoon.
He ordered a glass of white wine but was killed by what was served to him instead.
It appears that he was served, by the waiter, an industrial cleaner instead of white wine that he had ordered. This mistake occurred because the dishwasher detergent was poured in an empty wine bottle and was put inside the fridge.
The detergent was colorless and odorless so neither the waiter nor Andres Lorente realized that it wasn’t wine in the bottle.
The victim, a divorced dad-of-two, was taken by ambulance to a local health centre before being rushed to hospital in nearby Vinaros as his condition worsened.
Local Civil Guard officers confirmed they had arrested the cafe-bar owner on suspicion of manslaughter and released him on bail after questioning.
The bar was closed after the incident and the bottle containing the cleaner as well as the glass the dead man drunk from, were taken away for expert analysis.
A source close to the investigation said: "Everything at the moment is pointing towards a tragedy caused by negligence rather than ill-intent.
"The industrial cleaner appears to have been placed in an empty wine bottle in the fridge with the terrible consequences that entailed.
"In its appearance, texture and colour, it was identical to the glass of white wine the victim had ordered.
"Our understanding is he only took a small sip of the liquid."
Jose Antonio Martin, director of the gastroenterology department at Castellon General Hospital, said that ingesting even a small amount of such a concentrated liquid could be lethal. "It starts burning immediately," he told El Periodico Mediterraneo. "If it is potent it can burn and puncture the oesophagus and stomach."
A post mortem examination is due to take place.
