Laos police detain hostel staff over backpackers' methanol poisoning deaths
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Police have detained the 34-year-old manager of the Nana Backpacker Hostel and seven other employees for interrogation.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
Bangkok – Police in Laos have detained the manager and seven workers of a backpacker hostel in Vang Vieng following the deaths of six tourists from suspected methanol poisoning, state media reported on Nov 26.
Two Danish citizens, an American, a Briton and two Australians died following what media said was a night out in the town on Nov 12.
Police have detained the 34-year-old manager of the Nana Backpacker Hostel and seven other employees for interrogation, the Laos Post said on Nov 26.
Local media reported that all those detained are Vietnamese nationals.
Vang Vieng has been a fixture on the South-east Asia backpacker trail since Laos’ secretive communist rulers opened the country to tourism decades ago.
The town was once synonymous with alcohol and drug-fuelled jungle parties for backpackers but has since been re-branded as an eco-tourism destination.
Alcohol tainted with methanol is suspected to be the cause of the deaths.
Methanol is a toxic alcohol that is added to liquor to increase its potency but can cause blindness, liver damage and death.
On their travel advice websites, the British and Australian authorities have warned their citizens to beware of methanol poisoning while consuming alcohol in Laos.
On Nov 23, the Laos government expressed “sincere sympathy and deepest condolences to the families of the deceased”, adding that an investigation was under way to find the cause of the incident. AFP
