Eight detained by police over Laos backpacker deaths: local media

Singapore: Eight people linked to the Nana Backpackers Hostel have been detained by police in the Laos village of Vang Vieng after the deaths of six tourists in a suspected drink-poisoning incident, local media have reported.

Those detained are the management and staff of the hostel, Laophattana News reported, linked to the deaths of Danish tourists Anne-Sofie Coyman, 20, and Freja Sorensen, 21, and American man James Hutson, 57. All three had been staying at the hostel.

The report said police had made no mention of the three other tourists who died in the suspected mass poisoning, including Australians Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both 19, who had also been guests at Nana. The pair were taken to different hospitals in Thailand and later died.

British lawyer Simone White, 28, was the sixth known person to have died.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that a third Australian also fell ill as part of the suspected poisoning in Vang Vieng. The person is believed to be a dual national who is in a stable condition and being supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Those arrested are reportedly all male and aged between 23 and 47. Police late last week ordered the closure of Nana hostel and questioned the venue’s manager in the Laotian capital, Vientiane, on Friday.

Speaking in the days after the suspected poisoning became public, the manager of Nana, Duong Duc Toan, said staff were told by other guests that the two Australian women were unwell after they failed to check out as planned on November 13, and they arranged transport to a hospital for them.

Toan said that two days earlier, the women had joined more than 100 other guests for free shots of Lao vodka offered by the hostel as a gesture of hospitality. He said no other guest reported any issue, adding that the women had then gone out for the night, returning in the early hours of the morning.