Officials arrested eight hostel workers in Laos on Monday for allegedly poisoning travelers with methanol, according to reports from the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Tourists reported illnesses after consuming alcohol in the town of Vang Vieng,

A third Australian has fallen ill after consuming methanol-laced alcohol in Laos. So far, six people have died and eight arrests have been made in what is suspected to be a mass methanol poisoning.

A second Australian teenager who fell critically ill after drinking tainted alcohol in Laos has died, according to a family statement sent to Australian media.

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.

Southeast Asia has the "highest rates of methanol poisoning globally", said Al Jazeera, and this is often blamed on "economic pressures and weak regulations". Laos, despite its increasing popularity with backpackers, is one of the poorest nations in the region.

An Australian teenager has become the sixth foreign tourist to die in a suspected mass methanol poisoning in Laos, as a growing list of countries warned of the potentially fatal consequences of drinking tainted alcohol in the Southeast Asian country.

Laos police have detained eight men over a suspected methanol poisoning that killed six backpackers, including two Australians. Laos police told the ABC the detained men were staff and management of the Nana Backpackers hostel, where Australian teenagers Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles were staying when they fell ill.

Bodies of Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles brought home as Laos police arrest eight people over suspected methanol poisoning.