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.

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

Reviews warning travellers about a Laos hostel at the centre of suspected methanol poisonings which killed six people appear to have been deleted.

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.

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.

In a series of now deleted Google Reviews obtained by the ABC, backpackers warned about the unfolding disaster at the Nana Backpacker Hostel in Vang Vieng - where at least five of the six people to have died from suspected methanol poisoning were staying.

Police in Laos have detained the manager and seven workers of a backpacker hostel in Vang Vieng following the deaths of six tourists from suspected methanol poisoning, state media reported on Tuesday.