A British lawyer is in hospital after allegedly being served free drinks poisoned with methanol while on holiday in a backpacking hotspot in Laos.
An Australian teenager, two Danish women aged in their 20s and an American are among those reported to have died after the incident in Vang Vieng. About a dozen others are believed to have been left seriously unwell.
Simone White, 28, from Orpington, Kent, was one among the tourists taken to hospital when they became ill last week.
Vang Vieng in Laos is known as a gap year party town
ALAMY
Bianca Jones, 19, from Melbourne, died on Thursday at a hospital in Udon Thani, near Thailand’s border with Laos. Her schoolfriend Holly Bowles, also 19, remains gravely ill on life support.
Many of the victims, most of whom were guests at Nana Backpacker Hostel, fell ill after drinking on Tuesday night last week. It is not known where the contaminated drinks were sold.
White is an associate lawyer specialising in intellectual property and technology at the London office of the American law firm Squire Patton Boggs.
She was an A-level pupil at St Olave’s Grammar School in Orpington and went on to study law at Newcastle University before taking the fast-track course at the BPP law school.
Her mother could not be reached for comment at the family home.
White’s friend, Bethany Clarke, a healthcare worker who is also from Orpington, wrote on the Laos Backpacking Facebook group: “Urgent — please 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. Six of us who drank from the same place are in hospital currently with methanol poisoning.”
Clarke wrote on Facebook that she was “very fatigued and then fainted, then just felt nauseous and then my liver started to shut down”. She added: “I got to the private hospital in time but underwent many infusions and tablets and days of recovery.”
Duong Duc Toan, the hostel manager, said more than 100 guests received free shots of Lao Tiger vodka mixed with ice and Coke Zero as a gesture of hospitality. He said the spirit, containing 40 per cent alcohol, was from a certified distributor and was not tainted by him or his staff.
He told the Associated Press: “Right now the police [are telling] every hostel and hotel and bar to stop selling drinks in Vang Vieng.”
The Nana Backpacker Hostel, where several of those who fell ill were staying
Toan told the Australian broadcaster ABC that he is certain the poisoned drinks were not sold at his bar.
He said: “The police in Vang Vieng and [the capital] Vientiane already came to the hostel to check, the shop [where] we buy the vodka, check the shop [where] we buy the whisky.
“We don’t do anything wrong, for sure. I really take care of all of the customers [who] stay with our hotel and our hostel.”
The Jones family said in a statement that Bianca was on a “dream getaway with her best friend Holly”, adding: “They were filled with joy and had such incredible adventures ahead of them.”
Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese told parliament that the death of Bianca Jones was “every parent’s worst nightmare.”
“Our first thoughts at this moment are with her family and friends, who are grieving a terrible and cruel loss. This is every parent’s worst fear and a nightmare that no one should have to endure,” he said.
Laos police have opened an investigation into the poisoning.
The 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.”
