Authorities in Thailand on Wednesday were investigating the deaths of six people in a luxury hotel in downtown Bangkok, with police saying their demise may have been caused by poisoning.

Lt. Gen. Trairong Piwpan, chief of the Thai police force's forensic division, said there were traces of cyanide in the cups and thermoses that police found in the room, but initial results of an autopsy were expected on Thursday.

Bangkok police chief Lt. Gen. Thiti Sangsawang identified the dead as two Vietnamese Americans and four Vietnamese nationals, and said there were three males and three females.

A husband and wife among the dead had invested money with two of the other victims, suggesting that money could be a motive, according to officials, citing information obtained from relatives of the victims. The investment was meant to build a hospital in Japan and the group might have been meeting to settle the matter.

The victims had booked several rooms at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel under seven names, and some were staying on a different floor from the room where they were found dead, according to officials.

Police were still looking for the seventh person included in the booking, Thiti said at a news conference at the hotel.

He said there were no signs of a struggle.

The residents of the room where the bodies were found were supposed to have checked out earlier Tuesday and their luggage had already been packed, he said.

The bodies were discovered by a maid who went to the room after they failed to check out and found it locked from the inside, Thiti added.

There was food that had been ordered earlier from room service that was left uneaten, but drinks had been consumed, Thiti also said.

He would not confirm a cause of death, but said the deaths appeared to have occurred about 24 hours before police arrived on the scene Tuesday evening after being called by hotel staff.

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin went to the hotel later on Tuesday evening, and afterwards told journalists the incident was neither a robbery nor a random assault, and that it should not affect Thailand’s tourism industry.

Pending the results of autopsies, “Our hypothesis is that they ingested something that killed them,” Srettha said. (AP)
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Last updated: 2024-07-17 HKT 16:25