This article was updated on July 17, 2024 at 4:22am PT.
According to Thai police, the bodies of six people were found dead inside the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel in downtown Bangkok.
ABC News reports that “Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said in a short statement that the dead were reported to be two Vietnamese Americans and four Vietnamese nationals. They were not identified further.”
As of now, details about the incident are limited but police were summoned to the hotel on Tuesday around 5:30pm local time by hotel staff to investigate and according to the Thai newspaper Matichon, five bodies were discovered inside a hotel room and one outside.
Per ABC News: “Investigators said the bodies were found foaming at the mouth, an officer from the Lumpini police station said on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release information. Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin went to the scene in the evening but did not provide any additional information to reporters gathered there.”
While the cause of death has yet to be confirmed, poisoning is suspected.
Bangkok’s Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel is a large luxury property situated in a popular tourist district in the city.
The latest update, Matichon reports, “is that police officers have cordoned off the area and are investigating. Prime Minister Settha Thavisin has ordered an urgent investigation into the incident. Pol. Gen. Torsak Sukwimol, the national police chief, has traveled to inspect the scene himself.
It was reported that at 9:10 p.m., Prime Minister Sathit Thaveesin arrived at the hotel where the incident occurred, looking stressed and refusing to give interviews to the media.”
UPDATE (July 17, 2024 at 4:22am PT): Since the initial publication of this article, new details have emerged. According to CNN, the suspected cause of death is cyanide poisoning.
“When police arrived at the scene, they found the bodies of three men and three women, a table full of untouched food wrapped in plastic and used cups with traces of a white powder. The door was locked from the inside, police said, though a backdoor was left unlocked.
Authorities initially said they were searching for a seventh person who was part of the hotel booking. But on Wednesday they dismissed this line of inquiry, saying they believe one of the deceased poisoned the others with the deadly fast-acting chemical cyanide.”
Bangkok’s Deputy Metropolitan Police Commissioner Noppasin Poonsawat told reporters that their initial investigation leads them to believe that one of the six may have poisoned the other five before taking their own life. CNN reports that Noppasin added that “the incident was likely linked to a “personal matter” and not related to organized crime as interviews carried out with relatives of the dead indicated a dispute over debt.”
The New York Times reports that the police have identified the dead as Sherine Chong and Dang Hung Van, both Vietnamese Americans, and Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan, Pham Hong Thanh, Tran Dinh Phu, and Nguyen Thi Phuong, all Vietnamese citizens.
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