VIENTIANE: An Australian teenager died on Thursday (Nov 21) after drinking methanol-tainted alcohol in Laos, Thai police and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, the fourth foreign national now suspected to have died in the incident.

Bianca Jones, 19, fell ill last week in Vang Vieng, a city in the Southeast Asian nation popular with foreign tourists, which is about two hours north of the capital Vientiane by road.

She died on Thursday after being taken to a hospital in neighboring Thailand on November 13, police in the city of Udon Thani said.

“The doctor who examined her said the cause of death was methanol poisoning from fake liquor,” Phattanawong Chanphon, a police official in the Thai city, told Reuters.

“The amount of methanol in her body was high, which caused her brain to swell.”

Australian media said Jones was the fourth foreign tourist to die after consuming the tainted alcohol, after two Danes and an American.

“This is every parent’s worst fear and a nightmare that no one should have to endure,” Albanese told parliament on Thursday. “All Australians offer them our deepest sympathy at this time of grief.”

Jones’ friend, Holly Bowles, 19, is in critical condition at the hospital, Albanese said.

Australian media network ABC News reported that Bowles is on life support at Bangkok Hospital.