Eight staff members of a backpacker hostel in Laos have been detained by local authorities as they investigate the deaths of six foreign tourists from suspected methanol poisoning, according to state-affiliated media in the Southeast Asian country.

A Laos government document obtained by the ABC suggests the source of a methanol poisoning outbreak that killed six tourists is a rundown factory outside of Vientiane that was making vodka and whisky.

Amongst the tourists who tragically lost their lives were American traveller James Louis Hutson, 57, 28-year-old British woman Simone White and two Danish travellers Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Vennervald Sorensen, 21.

HOSTEL staff in Laos have been arrested over the fatal poisonings of six tourists thought to have been offered methanol-laced shots. Eight employees at the Nana Backpacker hostel in Vang Vieng

Staff from a backpacker hostel have been detained after six tourists died from suspected methanol poisoning after a night out.View on euronews

Police in Laos have detained eight members of staff at a backpacker hostel following the deaths of six tourists from suspected methanol poisoning last week. According to local media, those detained include workers and management from the Nana Backpacker Hostel in the town of Vang Vieng, where several of the tourists who later died had stayed.

THE parents of a British teenager found dead at a Laos hostel where six tourists died after drinking “methanol-laced shots” fear their son may have been poisoned with dodgy booze. Navy hopeful Lee

Police have arrested the owner of a factory near Vientiane, Laos, after being identified as the source of methanol-poisoned alcohol that killed six foreign tourists. The manufacturing facility, which produced Tiger Vodka and Tiger Whiskey,

The AP quickly deployed an all-formats team that dominated the story by providing voices and color from Vang Vieng, Laos, ahead of competitors.   AP’s