A British lawyer has been hospitalised after allegedly being served drinks laced with methanol while backpacking in Laos.
Four people have died and several more are still in hospital after they are said to have consumed contaminated alcohol in the town of Vang Vieng. This includes an Australian teenager, two Danish women in their twenties and an American man.
Simone White, 28, a British lawyer from Kent, was among the tourists taken to hospital after the incident on Tuesday night last week.
Details have emerged over the past few days about what happened to the people alleged to have been poisoned. Here’s what we know so far about what happened to the travellers.
What happened in Laos on 12 November?
The deaths of four tourists in Laos are still under police investigation but reports and testimonies suggest they could be related to drinks being laced with methanol, a substance which is toxic to humans.
Two Australian women, both 19, fell ill after drinking at Nana backpackers hostel in Vang Vieng, a popular destination for backpackers.
Best friends Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones are understood to have joined more than 100 other guests for free shots of Lao vodka offered by the hostel as a gesture of hospitality on Tuesday 12 November.
The hostel’s manager Duong Duc Toan told the Associated Press that the guests were served the shots of Lao Tiger Vodka mixed with ice and Coke Zero, claiming that no one else reported any issue. He said that the alcohol was bought from a certified distributor and had not been contaminated by himself or his staff.
“Right now the police [are telling] every hostel and hotel and bar to stop selling drinks in Vang Vieng,” he told the news agency.
Mr Toan added that the women went out for the night and came back early in the morning.
Over the next 24 hours, the pair are understood to have become unwell and did not emerge from their shared room.
Staff became concerned after the pair failed to check out on 13 November and arranged to take the girls to hospital, according to reports.
Bianca’s family released a statement on Tuesday, when she was gravely ill in hospital, saying their daughter had been on a “dream getaway with her best friend Holly”.
The Jones family confirmed her death to the media on Thursday, saying: “This is every parent’s nightmare and we want to ensure no other family is forced to endure the anguish we are going through.”
They asked the local authorities to “get to the bottom of what happened as soon as possible”.
Bianca’s friend Holly is reportedly on life support in Bangkok hospital. Holly’s father, Shaun Bowles, said his daughter remains in the intensive care unit and the family has spent “as much time as possible” by her side.
Hours before Bianca’s death was confirmed, the US State Department told the media that a 56-year-old American man also died in Vang Vieng.
Two Danish women, aged 19 and 20, also died last week in Laos, the Danish authorities confirmed. However, their identities have not been shared.
Who has been hospitalised?
Several other victims have been taken to hospital with suspected methanol poisoning, including a British woman who is understood to be seriously ill.
British lawyer Simone White, from Orpington, Kent, is among those understood to have been hospitalised after consuming drinks in Vang Vieng on 12 November.
She is an associate lawyer specialising in intellectual property and technology at the London office of the American law firm Squire Patton Boggs, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Her friend Bethany Clake, a healthcare worker who is also from Kent, wrote on the Laos Backpacking Facebook group urging tourists to “avoid all local spirits”.
“Our group stayed in Vang Vieng and we drank free shots offered by one of the bars. Just avoid them as so not worth it,” she wrote. “Six of us who drank from the same place are in hospital currently with methanol poisoning.”
Bethany also wrote on Facebook that she felt “very fatigued and then fainted, then just felt nauseous and then my liver started to shut down”.
She added that she underwent “many infusions and tablets” as she recovered.
The New Zealand foreign ministry told local media that one of its citizens had fallen unwell from suspected methanol poisoning.
The Dutch authorities said a citizen had also been sent to hospital but is in a stable condition.
It is unclear exactly how many more people have fallen ill after the incident.
What have the authorities said?
The UK, New Zealand and Australian authorities have warned their citizens to be careful of methanol poisoning when consuming alcohol in Laos.
Methanol is toxic to humans, unlike ethanol – the key component of alcoholic drinks. Bootleg alcohol producers sometimes add it to their drinks as a cheap way to increase alcohol content.
Earlier this year, 57 people died in India after drinking alcohol laced with methanol and similar cases of mass poisoning have been reported across the world.
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “We are providing consular assistance to British nationals and their families and are in contact with the local authorities following an incident in Laos.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed Bianca’s death on Thursday afternoon, saying: “Our first thoughts in this moment are with her family and friends who are grieving a terrible and cruel loss.
“This is every parent’s very worst fear and a nightmare that no one should have to endure.”
The US State Department said it was “closely monitoring” the situation with its citizen, adding that it is the local authorities’ responsibility to determine the cause of death.