Vang Vieng, Laos - November 13, 2024 Video shot from inside the hostel on Nov 13, 2024. 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. The deaths of two Australian teenagers, a British woman, an American man and two Danish women – and reports of others taken ill – prompted warnings last week from several Western nations about the potentially fatal consequences of drinking tainted alcohol in Laos. The employees of the Nana Backpacker Hostel in the northern town of Vang Vieng, all Vietnamese nationals aged between 23 and 44, were arrested Monday by local police, state-affiliated newspaper the Laotian Times reported. Part of the investigation has focused on reports the tourists were offered free shots of alcohol at the hostel, where at least five of those who died had stayed.