Police in Laos close hostel where Australian victims of suspected methanol poisoning stayed

Vang Vieng, Laos: Police have ordered the closure of the Laos hostel where two 19-year-old Australians and other travellers were staying when they were rushed to hospital in a suspected mass poisoning now believed to have killed at least six people.

Australian teenager Holly Bowles died on Friday, a day after her travelling partner and fellow Melburnian Bianca Jones. They had been enjoying a night out in the Laos backpacker hotspot of Vang Vieng and drank spirits believed to have contained methanol, a lethal form of alcohol most common in crude brews.

Killed: Bianca Jones (left) and Holly Bowles.Credit:

The story has sent a shudder through parents across the world. Australians, gripped by the Melbourne teenagers’ fight for life in Thai hospitals, are now bereft.

Investigators questioned the venue’s manager in the Laotian capital Vientiane on Friday, as the last of Nana Backpacker Hostel’s guests were checking out. The dormitory-style backpackers stopped taking guests on Thursday on the orders of police.

Since the events of last week, Vang Vieng hotel managers who would normally recommend caves, treks and zip lines were now warning guests to watch what they drink. Be careful and don’t do the free shots, two hotel workers told this masthead on Friday.

How could venues part with so much booze unless it was dirt cheap to source and therefore crude? The common denominator in the unfolding tragedy was Nana, they said.

A notice displayed at the bar of Nana Backpacker hostel in Vang Vieng, Laos.Credit: AP

Guests had been given free shots at the hostel bar on the night the Australians were allegedly poisoned, believed to be November 11. Some then ventured out to enjoy Vang Vieng’s celebrated nightlife, leading to theories that other venues might have been the culprit.

Many people drinking at Nana never became sick. On the other hand, everyone who did get sick was staying there, said staff at a nearby hotel. This masthead has been unable to verify that claim.

The death toll now includes Bowles, Jones, two young Danish women, an American man and 28-year-old British woman Simone White.

The hostel denies that its drinks made the guests sick. To make the point earlier this week, the manager drank vodka from one of the bottles himself.

A Nana worker, one of few remaining there to help the last guests check out, said the Australian 19-year-olds had returned in the early hours of the morning. They seemed happy, he said, though they were not walking straight. Vang Vieng is a party town for backpackers, so this was not unusual.

The Danes also came home late from somewhere else that morning, separately to the Australians, he said.

He said Jones and Bowles had spent all the next day in the dormitory they shared with another person, before appearing about 10pm. They were “walking around”, the worker said, but they were apparently having trouble drinking water. About 2am on what was believed to be November 13, the pair, assisted by the dorm mate, asked the hostel for an ambulance.

The worker decided the fastest action was to take them himself on a moped. The women said nothing on the drive, he said, and the last he saw of them was at the hospital.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong has reached out to her new Laos counterpart, who assumed office on Friday, to underline how devastated Australians were by Jones’ death and Bowles’ then-tenuous grip on life.

Laotian authorities have not released any details. But this masthead has been told the Australian government has pressed them for a thorough and transparent investigation.

The deaths have shocked the rundown but charming town rimmed by jagged mountains and dotted with cheap bars.

The last guests at Nana had arrived on Tuesday, a week after the night out and just as news was starting to spread. Other guests informed them about what had happened. They did not want to speak on the record while still in Laos for their safety. Other backpackers there this week have said the same thing.

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