The US State Department says that it is closely monitoring the investigation into the suspected murders of two US citizens in a luxury Bangkok hotel.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a briefing on Tuesday that the US stands ready to provide consular assistance to the families.
The two, of Vietnamese origin, were among six people who were found dead in a room in the hotel in the Ratchaprasong area of Bangkok on Wednesday evening. The four others were Vietnamese citizens.
“Whenever a US citizen dies in a foreign country, local authorities are responsible for determining the cause of death. We do, however, reach out to local authorities often, to communicate with them, when it involves the death of a US citizen and we will certainly be doing so here,” Miller said.
The Thai police are, so far, classifying the deaths of the six as murder by poisoning.
They are, however, waiting for the results of autopsies on the bodies, which were all found scattered around the same hotel room, as well as those of forensic examinations of trace evidence found in some cups in the room.
The deaths are suspected to have occurred on Monday afternoon, police said, as some food was ordered to their room at about 1pm.
When the bodies were discovered by a maid, the food appeared not to have been touched. Used teacups were found.
Thai PM Srettha Thavisin claims that the deaths will not affect Thailand’s image or the tourism sector, but Aljazeera is reporting that this isn’t the first time that Thailand’s tourism sector has been shaken like this.
Last October, two foreigners were killed during a shooting spree in a luxury shopping mall, also in central Bangkok, prompting the government to take measures to rebuild confidence in tourism.
More than 28 million foreign tourists visited Thailand last year, spending 1.2 trillion baht (US$33.3bn) in the country, while other key sectors of the economy have been slow to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
