Drinking will kill 210,000 in Next 20 Years: Experts

London : Alcohol will cause 210,000 deaths during the next 20 years through illness, violence and accidents, British doctors have warned.

Two of Britain's foremost alcohol specialists, Ian Gilmore and Nick Sheron, are calling on the government to act quickly to avert this "shameful, preventable loss of life" by outlawing cheap alcohol, Daily Mail reported Monday.

In a BBC Panorama programme Monday, liver specialist Sheron says that liver disease is now the only major cause of death continuing to rise.

They have calculated that in the next two decades there will be 70,000 avoidable deaths from liver disease and another 140,000 from drink-related strokes, heart attacks, cancer, violence, suicides and accidents.

Ministers had hoped that introducing 24-hour drinking laws in 2005 would stop revellers binge-drinking in the run-up to closing time.

But police say that round-the-clock opening, in combination with supermarkets selling some alcohol cheaper than water, has left town centres resembling the Wild West.

Health service figures show there were 1.2 million hospital admissions related to alcohol last year, which has doubled in just eight years.