Australian man dies in Laos after suspected drink spiking

A MELBOURNE man has died while travelling in Laos after his drink was reportedly spiked.

Laos is a popular tourist destination among Aussie travellers. Picture: Mike Dolan

A MELBOURNE man has died while travelling in Laos after his drink was reportedly spiked.

The man, a 24-year-old tourist, died over the weekend, The Herald Sun reports.

His friend also fell ill after the suspected poisoning and required hospital treatment.

“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian man who died in Laos,” DFAT said in a statement.

Laos is popular with young Aussie backpackers but has a dark history with a number of fatalities.

The young man’s death is the latest of a series of Australian deaths in Laos in recent years.

In 2013, two Australian friends travelling together were found dead within three days of each other.

Kane Scriven, 40, was found dead on New Year’s Day after a night of heavy drinking. His friend Nicholas Parkin, 39, was discovered dead in a hotel room in the capital Vientiane on January 4.

Both men worked as crewmen for Workboats Northern Australia in Darwin and were holidaying in Laos.

In January 2012, a Sydney man died while tubing in Laos. 26-year-old Lee Hudswell from Cronulla was on holidays in the South-East Asian country and died after jumping from a tower into the river. Holiday-makers tried to resuscitate him but he died a short time afterwards in hospital.

Later that month, Melbourne man Daniel Eimutis, 19, died in a separate incident near tubing hot spot Vang Vieng. His body was found three days after he disappeared while tubing.

In February, 2012, Yarraville man Alexander Lee, 22, was found dead in a hotel room in the historic town of Luang Prabang.

In August, 2012, the Laos government cracked down on Vang Vieng’s popular tubing scene after a number of backpacker tragedies, including 22 deaths in 2011 and seven in 2012. The riverside bars were not only closed, many were dismantled.