Laos police detained the manager and seven employees of a backpacking hostel in Vang Vieng. 6 tourists killed Methanol poisoning is suspected, state media reported Tuesday.
2 Danish citizens; AmericanOn November 12, a British national and two Australians died after media reported they had spent a night in the village.
The victims included Briton Simone White, 28, two young Australians, Holly Bowles and her best friend Bianca Jones, and two young Danish women, Anne-Sophie Orkhild-Koyman and Freja Venervald Sorensen, the BBC reported. Only one of the victims, 57-year-old American citizen James Louis Hutson, was male.
Police detained and questioned the 34-year-old manager of Nana Backpacker Hostel and seven other employees, the Laos Post said on Tuesday.
Anupam Nath/AP
Local media reported that all those detained were Vietnamese nationals.
The owner of the now-closed hostel previously denied serving illegal alcohol, the BBC reported.
Vang Vieng has been a popular destination for Southeast Asian backpackers since the country’s secretive communist rulers opened the country to tourism decades ago.
The town was once synonymous with booze- and drug-filled jungle parties for backpackers, but has since been rebranded as an eco-tourism destination.
Alcohol containing methanol is presumed to be the cause of death.
Methanol is a toxic alcohol that can be added to alcohol to increase its potency, but it can cause blindness, liver damage, and death.
British and Australian authorities have warned citizens on travel advice websites to beware of methanol poisoning when drinking alcohol in Laos.
“We express our sincere condolences and deepest condolences to the family of the deceased,” the Laos government said on Saturday, adding that an investigation was underway to determine the cause of the incident.
