Hong Kong According to local media, eight staff members of a Laotian backpacker hotel have been taken into custody for interrogation by authorities looking into the deaths of six international visitors who may have been poisoned by methanol.
Their governments have confirmed the deaths of two Australian adolescents, two Danish women, an American guy, and a British woman. Foreign governments have warned tourists to be careful about what they drink in nightclubs and bars in the Southeast Asian country, especially if it is free, as they are believed to have perished after consuming alcohol laced with methanol.
A number of the deceased had stayed at the Nana Backpackers Hostel in Vang Vieng, a backpacker-friendly town north of Vientiane. Free shots of alcohol had reportedly been provided to hostel guests.
According to the state-affiliated Laotian Times, the employees, who were all Vietnamese nationals between the ages of 23 and 44, were taken into custody on Monday.
Last week, Duong Duc Toan, the hostel’s manager, told The Associated Press that no other visitors had complained about anything and that the two Australians, Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones, both 19, had left after getting the free shots. According to The AP, he and the hostel’s Vietnamese owner were both taken into custody for interrogation last week.
James Louis Hutson, 57, has been identified as the American victim.
Investigations are still ongoing, according to authorities, and details of the deaths are still unknown. According to state-run media on Friday, drinking poisoned alcohol is thought to have been the cause of the deaths.
In the past, dishonest bar owners have attempted to increase volume by serving alcohol tainted with methanol, which has caused travelers to die from methanol poisoning.
One of the few openly communist nations in the world, Laos, has expressed its deep sadness over the murders and promised to bring charges against those guilty.
On Tuesday evening, Jones and Bowles’ bodies were brought back to Australia along with their family members.
We terribly miss our daughters. Mark Jones, Jones’ father, told reporters at Melbourne Airport, “I’m glad to hear that there’s been some movement over in Laos.”
“We can’t let our girls die and this keep happening,” he stated.
A representative for the New Zealand foreign ministry told Reuters on Monday that a New Zealander who was similarly poisoned by tainted booze but lived has returned home.
Other victims’ remains are still being repatriated by the Danish, American, and other embassies.
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