The deaths of six foreign tourists linked to a suspected mass methanol poisoning has thrown a spotlight on a small town in Southeast Asia that has worked hard in recent years to shed its reputation for excess.

The deaths of six tourists sent shock waves through the backpacker scene in Vang Vieng.

A second Australian teenager has died of suspected methanol poisoning, bringing to six the number of foreign tourists who have died after apparently drinking tainted alcohol in Laos. The family of Holly Bowles,

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.

An Australian teenager has become the sixth foreign tourist to die of suspected methanol poisoning in a backpacker hotspot in northern Laos.Holly Bowles, 19, died in hospital the day after her best friend Bianca Jones lost her life in a separate Thai hospital.