Second tourist dies after British woman found dead at Sri Lankan hostel

The woman was rushed to hospital from the hostel in Colombo. A second tourist has died after a British woman suffered a fatal illness at their hostel in Sri Lanka, according to reports. A 24-year-old British woman was taken to hospital after collapsing while staying at a hostel in the centre of Colombo. The woman was one of three tourists who fell ill - the others being a German couple sharing the room, according to local media reports.

The 27-year-old woman from the German couple later died in hospital. Sri Lankan Police have launched an investigation into the deaths and have used a court order to close the hostel. Police are now exploring the possibility they are were poisoned after their room was sprayed with Phosphine - a deadly chemical used to kill bedbugs. A post-mortem examination will be conducted once the British victim’s family arrive in the Sri Lankan capital to formally identify her, police said.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said: “We are supporting the family of a British woman who has died in Sri Lanka and are in contact with the local authorities.”. It follows a string of British travellers falling fatally ill abroad in recent months, including weeks after another British woman and her fiance were found dead in a Vietnamese hotel just after announcing their engagement.

Greta Marie Otteson, 33, and Arno Quinton Els, 36, were found in separate hotel rooms in Hoi An after drinking wine, according to police. Cleaners found the bodies of Ms Otteson, a social media manager and travel influencer, in her bed in room 101 of the Hoi An Silverbell villa and her South African partner Mr Els in room 201 on Boxing Day. That fatal incident came just weeks after six tourists died from methanol poisoning in Laos after drinking contaminated free shots at a backpackers’ hostel.

On Sunday, British survivor Bethany Clarke spoke for the first time about the incident in Laos which claimed the life of her childhood friend Simone White. “If it looked dodgy, I wouldn’t have drunk it,” Ms Clarke told Australia’s 60 Minutes programme. “We went up to the bar and I watched him pour them out from a glass bottle with a vodka label on it. I knew it would have been a local spirit, I wouldn’t expect it to be an international spirit.”.

While she did not feel “that bad” at first, Ms Clarke added: “You physically can’t move. It’s like you’re more or less paralysed. You can still walk but everything is much, much, much more difficult than it would be ordinarily. Mainly fatigue, nausea, I fainted.”. Despite drinking the same number of mixed drinks as her friend and also being admitted to hospital, Ms Clarke went on to make a full recovery.

“It could have easily been me,” she said. “We’ve just had to try and get through the funeral and obviously we want to try and spread awareness and make sure other people don’t have to go through this. And then I can sort of start on my own journey of trying to come to terms with it all.”. Alongside White, the other victims were Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both aged 19 and from Australia, Sofie Orklid Coyman, 20, and Freya Vennervald Sorensen, 21, who were both from Denmark, and James Louis Hutson, a 57-year-old from the US.