Holly Bowles, Bianca Jones offered free shots by hostel, hours before they became critically ill

Bangkok/Van Vieng: The manager of the backpacker’s hostel where two Australians were staying when they became critically ill says he served the pair free shots of local vodka, but denies that is what made them sick.

Duong Duc Toan, manager of the Nana Backpacker Hostel in the Laos town of Van Vieng, said other guests notified staff that Melbourne teens Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones were unwell. The women failed to check out as planned on November 13, and he said the hostel then arranged hospital transport for them.

The 19-year-olds remain on life support in separate Thai hospitals following a mass suspected alcohol poisoning incident while on a night out in Van Vieng last week.

Their parents and Jones’ brother have flown to Thailand to be by their bedsides. The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday confirmed that two young women had died in the incident. The women are believed to have been aged in their 20s, The Bangkok Post reported, while 10 others had also fallen ill.

Toan said that the Australian women had joined more than 100 other guests for free shots of Laotian vodka offered by the hostel as a gesture of hospitality.

The hostel said the women started drinking at the bar at 8pm and left at about 10.30pm, going elsewhere for the rest of the night and returning in the early hours of the morning. He said no other guest reported any issue.

When this masthead visited the hostel on Tuesday afternoon, Toan produced a bottle of Tiger Vodka he said he served the women, pouring himself a drink and finishing it.

The bottle says the vodka is 40 per cent alcohol and is distilled in the southern part of the capital of Vientiane.