Laos police have arrested the owner, manager and six staff members of the Laotian hostel at the centre of a spate of fatal ­methanol poisonings as the ­grieving parents of Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles brought their daughters’ bodies back to ­Australia.

The family of a young Australian girl who died in hospital after falling critically ill from a mass methanol poisoning in Laos has urged the local government to prevent other lives from being lost. Bianca Jones died in a Thailand hospital on Thursday, and her friend Holly Bowles’ family confirmed her death the next day.