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“Young men and women should be able to travel, create their own life experiences and be safe. We’ll forever miss our beautiful girl and hope her loss of life has not been in vain.”
The government of Laos publicly acknowledged the tragedy for the first time on Saturday, saying it was “profoundly saddened”.
Tourists at Nana Backpacker Hostel in Vang Vieng last Tuesday.Credit: AP
“The government of the Lao PDR has been conducting investigations to find the causes of the incident and to bring the perpetrators to justice in accordance with the law,” it said. “The [government] reaffirms that it always attaches the importance [sic] and pays attention to the safety of both domestic and foreign tourists.”
Six people have now died in the suspected poisoning incident. At least 10 others are seriously ill after drinking spirits believed to have been laced with methanol, a cheap and deadly form of alcohol mostly found in crude or criminal brews.
An American man and two Danish women are believed to be the first three deaths from the suspected methanol poisoning in Vang Vieng.
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A Laos government document revealed that the American victim was found dead in his hostel room next to two empty bottles of vodka, while the two Danish victims were discovered unconscious on their bathroom floor.
The police document, seen by this masthead, named the American as James Louis Hutson, 57, and the Danish women as Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Vennervald Sorensen, 21, although the trio could not be independently identified. British woman Simone White, 28, is also among the dead.
On Friday, police ordered the closure of Nana Backpacker Hostel, the Laos hostel where the Australians and other travellers were staying when they were rushed to hospital.
This masthead has been unable to verify reports from locals that all the dead victims were guests at Nana, which had been serving free shots of alcohol just before they became sick.
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