Laotian police have detained the manager and owner of a hostel after five backpackers, including British lawyer Simone White, died of suspected methanol poisoning in the riverside party town of Van Vieng.

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.

Police in Laos have reportedly arrested the owner of a factory which reportedly supplied the poisoned alcohol that claimed the lives of six backpackers, including a British lawyer. Simone White, 28, died while on holiday with two friends after they accepted free vodka shots from Nana Backpackers Hostel in Vang Vieng, a popular tourist destination.

Laos: The law enforcement agencies in Laos have arrested 12 persons, including two Indians after methanol-contaminated alcohol claimed the lives of six foreign tourists at Nana Backpackers Hostel in Vang Vieng.

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.

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

As some of their number succumbed to methanol poisoning, other guests at the Laotian hostel at the centre of the probe tried to warn others to stay away - and the hostel reportedly deleted their warning.

It comes after six tourists have died in the country, including a 57-year-old American man, after suspected methanol poisoning.