Police in Laos have arrested eight people over the suspected mass methanol poisoning which killed six foreign tourists in backpacking hotspot Vang Vieng.
The Laos government promised justice after two Danish, two Australians, a Briton and an American citizen died after becoming ill following a night out at Nana Backpackers Hostel in the small riverside town on 12 November.
Police said those detained were all employees of Nana Backpacker Hostel, of Vietnamese nationality and aged between 23 and 44 years old.
Authorities say they suspect that the deaths were caused by poisoning, possibly due to tainted drinks laced with methanol.
The government said it had been conducting “investigations to find causes of the incident and to bring the perpetrators to justice in accordance with the law”.
However, little further information has been made available about the circumstances surrounding the deaths in the one-party communist state, where the media is tightly controlled.
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