Palakkad: Five people were found dead at a Tribal colony at Kanjikode near in Kerala's Palakkad district and nine, including three women, hospitalised, allegedly after consuming spurious liquor, police said on Monday.

The deceased are Raman (61), Sivan (37), Murthy (28), Ayyappan (58) and Arun (25).

Police said nine, including three women, are under treatment at the district hospital here and all had consumed liquor the previous day.

"We don't know whether what they consumed was liquor or not. The survivors say it was whitish in colour and got some smell similar to phenyl," Palakkad SPG Siva Vikram told the media.

Police are awaiting the post-mortem report of the deceased in order to confirm the cause of death.

They suspect spirit or sanitiser was added to the liquor.

Police also said that the two bodies will be exhumed.

(With inputs from PTI)