Drunk sets new alcohol record

AN AVIGNON man has survived to set an unenviable record – being the drunkest person in French history.

The man, left for dead after being beaten up and robbed outside an Avignon bar, was said by procureur Bernard Marchal to have 11g of alcohol in his blood, a record.

Doctors at the Timone hospital in Marseille said the man, in his 40s and named only as Sébastien, must have drunk the equivalent of four bottles of whisky in several hours.

He was lucky to be alive – not because of the alcohol level, but because of the injuries he sustained in the beating.

A waitress at the bar he had been drinking in said he was an oil worker back on leave from Angola. He had seemed a little tipsy in the bar, but only drank a couple of cocktails.

Addiction counsellor Dr Hélène Donnadieu-Rigole at Montpellier CHU told Midi Libre newspaper that she had never seen a similar case.

But she added that it was not, as most people assumed, that the man had a large capacity because of his body size – he had probably been drinking over a very long period and his body “would constantly have 3 or 4g in the blood”. Like heroin, the body gets used to having that quantity of alcohol and needs more.

The previous record in France was a man in Polliat, Ain, who was caught driving in February, 2005, with 10g of alcohol in his blood.

Police are hunting the man’s two attackers, who were seen on street surveillance cameras.

Photo: sk8geek