Two backpackers, 20 & 21, who drank ‘methanol-laced booze’ before ‘vomiting blood for hours’ at Laos hostel among 6 dead
TWO Danish women who were tragically killed in a suspected methanol poisoning in Laos have been pictured.
Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and her friend Freja Vennervald, 21, reportedly drank the tainted booze and were left vomiting blood for 13 hours before they died.
The pair had been on the trip of a lifetime together backpacking across South East Asia, the Daily Mail reports.
They were some of the first out of six foreign tourists visiting Vang Vieng in Laos to die in recent weeks.
The women are thought to have died after drinking alcoholic beverages laced with methanol – a lethal chemical sometimes served to holidaymakers in place of proper-quality ethanol.
A British woman is also among the four others to have died since the tragic apparent mass poisoning which happened around November 12.
Simone White, 28, from Kent, passed away last week alongside two Australian 19-year-olds who had been visiting from Melbourne.
American man James Louis Hutson, 57, also died.
Simone’s devastated mum Sue White previously told The Sun: “They had to wait an hour for the ambulance and by the time they got there, Simone was delirious and had trouble breathing.
“I think, basically, it had already affected her brain.”
Up to 12 travellers, including as many as five Britons, are still in hospital.
Anne-Sofie and Freja, originally from Roskilde just west of Copenhagen, were avid travellers.
They had visited Italy and Hungary together last year before saving up for the big South East Asia trip where they booked into the Nana Backpackers Hostel after arriving in Laos.
Aussie victims Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles were also staying at the hostel – where the owner said they were given free shots among some 100 other guests.
Just the next day they were rushed to different hospitals – where they both died around a week later.
It is not clear whether the other victims were also staying in the same hostel.
Not long after the Danish girls fell ill, a man who shared a mutual friend with them posted an urgent warning online for fellow backpackers.
It said: “The past few days I have been busy with a Belgian friend looking for two girls he travelled with.
“For more than 72 hours, no contact could be made while they had agreed to meet in Vang Vieng.
“The strange thing was that their last message was that they had both been vomiting blood for 13 hours… They have both since died.”
Meanwhile another young woman who was travelling in Vietnam met and befriended the Danish girls – saying “together we were a bomb of energy”.
Daniele Rodriguez told the Daily Mail she became close with the pair and warned them of potential dangers travelling in the area.
Police reports seen by the Sydney Morning Herald said they drank at the hostel before going to other local bars on November 12.
They came back to the accommodation at around midnight, spending the entire next day in their bathroom.
Eventually they were found lying unconscious on their bathroom floor at around 6pm on November 13.
The girls were rushed to hospital in Vang Vieng – both in a coma – before being taken to capital Vientiane.
They were reportedly declared dead at around 3.30am on November 14.
The timeline is similar to that of Aussie girls Bianca and Holly.
Guests at the hostel told staff they had failed to check out on November 13 – prompting workers to check on them and arrange transportation to take them to hospital.
Staff at the hostel have said their alcohol is not tainted and couldn’t be responsible for the tourists’ deaths.
A number of workers there – including the manager – have been detained by police for questioning but no charges have been filed yet.
Meanwhile American man James Hutson was found unconscious in his hotel room on November 13, next to two empty bottles of vodka, a Laos government document says.
He was taken to a local hospital, but declared dead upon arrival.
The hostel continued to operate for nine days following Hutson’s death before police finally closed it on Friday 22 after five more.
The Laos government said it was “profoundly saddened” by the deaths and confirmed it was investigating.
The hostel is said to have lured tourists in with free whisky and vodka happy hours every night.
A British backpacker told The Sun on Sunday: “We wondered how the drinks were so cheap and thought they must be watered down.
“But then sometimes we thought the alcohol just tasted different — it tasted almost clinical.”