'I feel like I've cheated death' - Yorkshire student on Laos poisonings

Natasha Moore, a 22-year-old graduate of Leeds Beckett University, was travelling through Southeast Asia when she arrived in Laos.

She had planned to stay at the Nana Backpacker Hostel while she was in the country earlier this month - but instead decided to spend an extra couple of days at her previous stop before moving on.

That decision to spend an extra two nights could have saved her life - after it transpired she was due to stay at Nana Backpacker Hostel on the day when a number of guests fell ill.

Those poisoned in the incident are believed to have been served drinks tainted with methanol, which is sometimes used by disreputable bars as a cheaper alternative to ethanol, but can cause severe poisoning or death.

Duong Duc Toan, manager of the Nana Backpacker Hostel, said staff were told by other guests that the women were unwell after they failed to check out as planned on November 13, and they arranged transport to a hospital for them.

He said the women had joined more than 100 other guests for free shots of Lao vodka offered by the hostel two days earlier.

He said no other guest reported any issue, adding the alleged victims had then gone for a night out, returning in the early hours of the morning.

Natasha said: “I was actually booked at Nana’s hostel.

“I extended one of the places that I was previously staying at by exactly two nights and if I hadn’t extended that then I would have been in Nana’s backpackers at the time of the poisonings which is just so scary.”

She said she was still planning on staying at the hostel when she found out about the incident.

“It wasn’t until I was on the train on the way that a girl told me about the situation,” she said. “At that point I cancelled immediately.”

“It started off with two suspected deaths and by the time I left it was six confirmed deaths. It felt like it was getting scarier and scarier the longer I was staying as the numbers were going up.

“I feel really anxious now about it all. It’s just absolutely awful. The whole situation is absolutely terrifying. I feel like I’ve escaped death.

“I can’t describe it. I just feel so weird. It’s almost like survivor's guilt. Why was it them and not me? I feel so sad and upset for all their friends and family.”

John George, a biochemistry reader at Leeds Beckett, said: “The breakdown products of methanol is not acetic acid like in ethanol - it is formic acid - which is far more dangerous.

“It’s that buildup of formic acid which ultimately poisons really important cellular components such as mitochondria, cell membranes and all of the mechanisms working inside the cells.”

Police in Laos have detained the manager and owner of a hostel in connection with the deaths. An officer at Vang Vieng’s Tourism Police office said no charges have been filed but a “number of people” have been detained in the case.

In a statement released to the media, the Laos government said it was “profoundly saddened” over the deaths of foreign tourists and offered its condolences to their families. It added that is has been investigating “to find causes of the incident” and to “bring the perpetrators to justice”.

Simone White, 28, from Orpington, Kent, was one of a number of people taken to hospital after the incident in the popular backpacking town of Vang Vieng earlier this month.

Ms White and 19-year-old Bianca Jones, from Australian, died after being evacuated from Vang Vieng for treatment in a Thai hospital.

A second Australian was reported to have died on Friday following the incident. Australia said “several foreign nationals” had been victims of methanol poisoning.

The US State Department confirmed an American had died and Denmark’s Foreign Ministry said two of its citizens also died in “the incident in Laos”, but neither would comment directly on a link to the methanol poisoning that killed Ms Jones.

Thai authorities confirmed Ms Jones died because of a “brain swelling due to high levels of methanol found in her system”.

Landlocked Laos is one of south-east Asia’s poorest nations and a popular tourist destination. Vang Vieng is particularly popular among backpackers seeking partying and adventure sports.

Officials in Laos have released almost no details about the case, with the government keeping a tight lid on information. The country is a one-party communist state with no organised opposition.