Police investigating the deaths of six people found in the room of a luxury hotel in central Bangkok say they believe a member of the group poisoned themselves and others using cyanide.
Initial tests had detected cyanide, a deadly chemical that interferes with the body’s ability to use oxygen, in a tea flask, six cups and in the blood of one of the dead men, police said. Based on interviews with a relative, they believe the deaths could be related to a business dispute.
The deceased were Vietnamese, and two had American citizenship, according to the Thai authorities, who said the FBI was assisting with the investigation.
Thai police said they believed the poisonings occurred on Monday afternoon, after the group ordered food and English tea to their room on the fifth floor of the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel in Bangkok’s commercial district.
When room service staff arrived, they saw only one of the six, a 56-year-old woman, police said. She received the food and drinks and told hotel staff there was no need to serve the tea, according to Noppasin Poonsawat, the deputy commander of the Metropolitan Police Bureau.
Shortly afterwards, CCTV showed all six members of the group gathering outside the room and then entering, the last time they were seen alive.
“It all started after 13:57 [on Monday], after the hotel staff brought six teacups, a milk pot and two flasks into the room. We found cyanide on the six cups. According to CCTV, there was no one else – apart from the six members of the group – going inside the room, and none of them were seen coming out, after 14:17,” Noppasin said.
The group of three women and three men were found dead the following day, late on Tuesday afternoon. They were discovered by a member of housekeeping staff, after they were late to check out.
The plates of food they had ordered appeared to have gone untouched, and were still sealed in clingfilm. Their luggage was packed. Police said no illegal materials had been found inside their luggage, which was searched overnight.
The group were named by media as Vietnamese nationals Thi Nguyen Phuong, 46, her husband, Hong Pham Thanh, 49, Thi Nguyen Phuong Lan, 47, and Dinh Tran Phu, 37, and the US citizens Sherine Chong, 56, and Dang Hung Van.
Police are studying wider CCTV footage to piece together a timeline of their stay in Bangkok. The FBI was supporting the investigation as two of the individuals held American citizenship, the Thai prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, said.
Srettha said the case was not related to terrorism and that a meeting with the Russian energy minister due to be held at the same hotel on Wednesday was unlikely to be affected. “The incident is not related to terrorism or lack of security measurement, so I think everything will go as schedule,” he said.
Police had been searching for a seventh person who was included in the group’s booking but did not check in; however, they said on Wednesday the seventh individual was a younger sister of one of the women and she had returned home to Vietnam before the incident.
Police said two members of the group, the married couple, had loaned 10m baht ($278,025/£233,186) to another member of the group to invest in a business project to build a hospital in Japan, and there appeared to be a dispute over money. The couple ran a construction company in Vietnam.
Further information about the quantity of cyanide ingested is expected on Wednesday afternoon.
The US state department was “closely monitoring the situation and [we] stand ready to provide consular assistance”, a spokesperson said.
It is not the first high-profile killing to have involved cyanide in Thailand. Last year, a Thai woman accused of poisoning people with cyanide was charged with 14 counts of murder, in one of the country’s worst suspected serial-killing cases.
Police investigating the deaths of six people found in the room of a luxury hotel in central Bangkok say they believe a member of the group poisoned themselves and others using cyanide.
Initial tests had detected cyanide, a deadly chemical that interferes with the body’s ability to use oxygen, in a tea flask, six cups and in the blood of one of the dead men, police said. Based on interviews with a relative, they believe the deaths could be related to a business dispute.
The deceased were Vietnamese, and two had American citizenship, according to the Thai authorities, who said the FBI was assisting with the investigation.
Thai police said they believed the poisonings occurred on Monday afternoon, after the group ordered food and English tea to their room on the fifth floor of the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel in Bangkok’s commercial district.
When room service staff arrived, they saw only one of the six, a 56-year-old woman, police said. She received the food and drinks and told hotel staff there was no need to serve the tea, according to Noppasin Poonsawat, the deputy commander of the Metropolitan Police Bureau.
Shortly afterwards, CCTV showed all six members of the group gathering outside the room and then entering, the last time they were seen alive.
“It all started after 13:57 [on Monday], after the hotel staff brought six teacups, a milk pot and two flasks into the room. We found cyanide on the six cups. According to CCTV, there was no one else – apart from the six members of the group – going inside the room, and none of them were seen coming out, after 14:17,” Noppasin said.
The group of three women and three men were found dead the following day, late on Tuesday afternoon. They were discovered by a member of housekeeping staff, after they were late to check out.
The plates of food they had ordered appeared to have gone untouched, and were still sealed in clingfilm. Their luggage was packed. Police said no illegal materials had been found inside their luggage, which was searched overnight.
The group were named by media as Vietnamese nationals Thi Nguyen Phuong, 46, her husband, Hong Pham Thanh, 49, Thi Nguyen Phuong Lan, 47, and Dinh Tran Phu, 37, and the US citizens Sherine Chong, 56, and Dang Hung Van.
Police are studying wider CCTV footage to piece together a timeline of their stay in Bangkok. The FBI was supporting the investigation as two of the individuals held American citizenship, the Thai prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, said.
Srettha said the case was not related to terrorism and that a meeting with the Russian energy minister due to be held at the same hotel on Wednesday was unlikely to be affected. “The incident is not related to terrorism or lack of security measurement, so I think everything will go as schedule,” he said.
Police had been searching for a seventh person who was included in the group’s booking but did not check in; however, they said on Wednesday the seventh individual was a younger sister of one of the women and she had returned home to Vietnam before the incident.
Police said two members of the group, the married couple, had loaned 10m baht ($278,025/£233,186) to another member of the group to invest in a business project to build a hospital in Japan, and there appeared to be a dispute over money. The couple ran a construction company in Vietnam.
Further information about the quantity of cyanide ingested is expected on Wednesday afternoon.
The US state department was “closely monitoring the situation and [we] stand ready to provide consular assistance”, a spokesperson said.
It is not the first high-profile killing to have involved cyanide in Thailand. Last year, a Thai woman accused of poisoning people with cyanide was charged with 14 counts of murder, in one of the country’s worst suspected serial-killing cases.
Traces of cyanide have been found in cups and a teapot in the room of a luxury Bangkok hotel where the bodies of six people were discovered in a suspected deliberate poisoning.
Police in Thailand said poisoning by cyanide - a rapidly-acting, deadly chemical - was the likely cause of death of the three men and three women.
The four Vietnamese nationals and two Vietnamese Americans were found by a hotel staff member in the room, which was locked from the inside.
Food ordered by room service was found untouched inside the room - but drinks had been consumed.
Image:Uneaten meals were found on a table in the hotel room. Pic: Royal Thai Police via AP
Four of the bodies were in the living room and two in the bedroom.
Hotel records showed there were no other visitors to the room.
Police Lieutenant General Trairong Phiwpan, head of the Thai police force's forensic division, told a news conference on Wednesday one of the six is the one who committed the murders at the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel.
"After staff brought teacups and two hot water bottles, milk and teapots... one of the six introduced cyanide," he said.
Image:The six bodies were found at the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. Pic: Reuters
Interviews with relatives of the dead revealed there had been a dispute over debt, police said.
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Officers said the investigation - aided by the FBI - also revealed a possible motive could be a conflict among the six victims regarding multi-million Baht investments.
The three dead women have been named as 46-year-old Nguyen Thi Phuong, Sherine Chong, aged 56, and Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan, also 46.
The male victims are Tran Dinh Phu, aged 37, Dang Hung Van, 55, and 49-year-old Hong Thanh Pham.
Image:Some of the victims pictured on CCTV entering the hotel. Pic: Royal Thai Police
The six were last seen alive when the meal was delivered to the room on Monday afternoon.
The initial results of a post-mortem are expected on Thursday.
Image:A police graphic of the crime scene showing where the bodies were discovered. Pic: Reuters
The Vietnamese government said its embassy in Bangkok was working with Thai authorities on the case, while the US State Department said it was monitoring the situation.
The deaths were initially reported by some Thai media as a shooting.
The hotel, operated by Erawan Group, has over 350 rooms and is located in a popular tourist area in the Thai capital known for luxury shopping and restaurants.
Image:Police officers speak to staff at the hotel. Pic: AP
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin had yesterday called for a swift investigation into the deaths to limit the impact on Thailand's vital tourism sector.
When asked if the deaths would affect a meeting with the Russian energy minister at the hotel later today, the prime minister said it was unlikely.
"This wasn't an act of terrorism or a breach in security, everything is fine," he said.
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We're wrapping up our live coverage for the night here at day two of the Republican convention in Milwaukee.
We saw a bevy of major Republicans lining up to heap praise on Donald Trump.
The two biggest names paying tribute were Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, who spoke one after the other. Mere months ago, both hoped this week would mark their own coronation as Republican presidential nominee.
But today they threw their support behind Donald Trump, who never entered a debate against his rivals on his way to securing the nomination.
We also heard from Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who tried to take on Trump in the 2016 race to be Republican nominee, and fell short.
Today the message from the party was clear: they are mobilised behind their candidate, and they seem confident.
We also saw more of JD Vance, who walked through the main arena at the convention in preparation for his big speech tomorrow.
Elsewhere in US politics, President Joe Biden appeared in Nevada at an event for the NAACP. He gave an energised speech that hit out against Trump's policies and character.
But he also had another blow to his own election campaign.
A Democratic campaign operative told the BBC that there were some who wanted to push for the party high command to take action, for example, by calling a vote of no confidence in the president.
As has become the norm in US politics, tomorrow is another busy day. And we'll be back to bring you the latest updates as they happen.
See you then.
Until then, we leave you with our wrap of Tuesday's action.
Kayla Epstein Reporting from the convention
Donald Trump Jr had hoped his father would choose JD Vance as his running mate, he shared during an interview earlier today at an event held by media outlet Axios.
"Honestly I think he's just an American Dream story," he said of Vance, citing the senator's book Hillbilly Elegy.
Trump Jr approved of the work Vance had done in the US Senate, where he has emerged as a proponent of a more internet-savvy brand of conservatism.
"I see his actions in the Senate," Trump Jr said. "I've gotten to know him over the last few years".
He also believed Vance possessed "the youth, the vigour his ability to really prosecute the case" for Donald Trump's candidacy.
Tomorrow is a big day for Vance, when he will deliver his first speech to the party since he was picked to be Trump's running mate.
Earlier in the night, the Republican convention heard from the mother of a US Army veteran and father-of-three who was killed in the New York neighbourhood of Harlem in 2018.
The speech brought the RNC crowd to their feet as she rained rhetorical fire and brimstone on “soft-on-crime prosecutors”, who she said had turned US cities into “war zones”.
Four siblings were initially charged with murder and gang assault in the fatal stabbing of Madeline Brame's son, Hason Correa.
Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg reduced the severity of the case, sparing the four maximum sentences.
Bragg is the same district attorney that charged Trump with business fraud, this year securing the first criminal conviction of a former president.
Brame told the RNC: “The Democratic party that poor minorities have been loyal to for decades, including myself, right, they betrayed us, they stabbed us in the back!"
“But mine eyes have been opened!” she added, a line laden with religious overtones that electrified the Republican crowd.
Railing against Bragg, she said of Trump: “He’s been a victim of the same corrupt system that I have been and my family has been.”
Mike Wendling Reporting from the convention
Lara Trump made a “heart” gesture towards the former president after a very personal speech, peppered with anecdotes about family life and her own experiences and recollections.
Her intended audience was wider than those in the room - as she tried to appeal to voters who are on the fence or haven’t voted for her father-in-law in the past.
Kayla Epstein Reporting from the convention
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Lara Trump, wife of the nominee's son, Eric Trump, says she had a different speech prepared until she saw Saturday's shooting.
"Nothing prepares you for a moment like that," she says. "Our family has faced our fair share of death threats, mysterious powders sent to our homes, tasteless and violent comments directed towards us on social media.
“But none of that prepares you, as a daughter-in-law, to watch in real time someone try to kill a person you love.
"None of that prepares you, as a mother, to quickly reach for the remote and turn your young children away from the screen so they're not witness to something that scars the memory of their grandpa for the rest of their lives."
Brandon Livesay Reporting from the convention
We've heard from a long list of speakers here at day two of the Republican Convention in Milwaukee
Inside the arena they are having a prayer to finish the night. Trump is standing alongside his running mate, JD Vance.
Attention now turns to tomorrow, when Vance will have his moment in the party's spotlight and deliver his own speech.
Kayla Epstein Reporting from the convention
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Several photos captured Trump with a bloodied ear, raising his fist after an attempted assassination on Saturday.
His team is certainly aware of how potent an image that instantly became.
Lara Trump reminds the crowd that after Trump came "millimeters from death" on Saturday, he raised his fist in the air. She then raises her arm and makes a fist - an invitation for the crowd to follow her lead.
They do. Several delegates raise their fists and chant "Fight! Fight! Fight!"
The chant had already happened spontaneously last night when Trump first appeared, but now it seems to have caught on. Ron DeSantis used the same chant earlier in his speech.
Mike Wendling reporting from the convention
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The mood on the floor tonight is definitely less intense than last night.
Trump’s former rivals trooped to the stage and despite a few scattered boos seemed to be able to connect with the Maga base.
A stretch of speeches by families of crime victims whipped up anger at crime, but Trump loyalists Sarah Sanders, Ben Carson and Marco Rubio lifted the mood.
In the VIP box, Trump and his guests appear a little more relaxed after last night’s emotion.
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Lara Trump, Trump’s daughter-in-law who was elected co-chair of the Republican National Committee earlier this year, is up now.
“I don’t feel like I have to ask this question, but is anyone in this room ready to send Donald Trump back to 1600 Pennsylvania avenue,” she says, pumping up the crowd.
“Our family has faced death threats… but none of that as a daughter-in-law can prepare watching someone try to kill someone you love,” she says.
She then thanks supporters for “their prayers and well wishes over the last 72-hours”.
Lara is one of two Trump loyalists to take up top leadership roles within the RNC recently. The other is the new chair Michael Whatley, a former party general counsel who championed Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud in the 2020 election.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who was floated as a contender to be Trump’s running mate - and shares a thorny history with the former president, is speaking glowingly of Trump.
He speaks about the attempt on Trump’s life.
“We were brought to the precipice of the abyss, and by the hand of God reminded of what truly matters in our lives and in our country," he says.
“It is our people who should always matter the most in everything we do - by giving voice to everyday Americans, President Trump has not just transformed our party, he has inspired a movement,” he told the cheering crowd.
"There is nothing dangerous or divisive about putting Americans first," he added, as chants of "U-S-A, U-S-A" broke out in the crowd.
Mike Wendling Reporting from the convention
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Florida Senator Marco Rubio is one of the final speakers scheduled tonight at the Republican convention.
He's just arrived on stage, wearing a red tie and an American flag pinned to his lapel.
Rubio says the Republican party has been transformed by Trump.
A small throng of Rubio supporters has moved just in front of the stage and chant his name as he starts speaking.
Mike Wendling Reporting from the convention
Just below the stage I ran into Charlie Kirk, the founder of campus group Turning Point.
The Trump campaign hopes this hardcore conservative group can turn out new supporters, and they’re pouring money into get-out-the-vote efforts.
But there’s one big problem - Trump’s voter fraud claims.
If you think elections are rigged, why vote?
“That's an issue,” Kirk admits, but he thinks some states are better than others at securing elections.
“The problems are at the margins,” he says, adding: “I wish we did it like you do it in the UK” with hand-counted paper ballots.
Although Donald Trump has criticised early and postal voting, Kirk says Republicans will have to take advantage of all potential voting methods to win in November.
He points to his t-shirt, which reads: “VOTE EARLY”.
One of the bigger moments of day two here at the Republican convention came moments ago, when former rival Nikki Haley gave her full endorsement to Donald Trump.
You can watch that moment in the video above.
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Sarah Huckabee Sanders continues to speak to the crowd here in Milwaukee.
“Not even an assassins bullet could stop him, God Almighty intervened because America is one nation under god, and he is certainly not finished with Donald Trump,” she says.
Sanders had been floated by some as a possible running mate for Trump, however she had also dragged her feet when it came to endorsing his re-election early on.
She’s used her speech so far to humanise Trump, describing him as a great father and grandfather, who has also offered his support to her own family during tough times.
Kayla Epstein Reporting from the convention
Several speakers whose families were the victims of violent crimes have taken the stage at the convention.
One of them, Madeline Brame, spoke about how her son was killed in a homicide.
She accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of not sufficiently prosecuting the crime.
At the mention of Bragg, the convention hall exploded into boos.
Bragg is the prosecutor who secured a conviction against Donald Trump in his New York hush money trial earlier this year. A jury convicted Trump.
The jeers for Bragg are the loudest of the night so far.
Trump's former White House press secretary, and the current Governor of Arkansas, is now on stage speaking about Trump.
The crowd cheers as Sarah Huckabee Sanders says she is "proud" to stand with Trump.
Mike Wendling reporting from the convention
Daniel Willis, 25, is chair of the Delaware young Republicans.
In his elephant hat - the party’s mascot - he tells me that DeSantis and Haley did more than enough “to bridge the gap” with Trump supporters tonight.
“Haley gave strong first-hand examples of her experiences as Donald Trump’s UN secretary," he says.
“And I liked DeSantis’s message that people in power should be there because they deserve to be there, and not through diversity initiatives.”
But for Willis, the real star tonight was Vivek Ramaswamy.
“He’s talking to the younger crowd… he’s definitely the future of the party”.
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Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis - two of the top contenders who took on Trump for the party's nomination during primary elections - have each just spoken at the convention stage.
The former rivals gave their full endorsements to Trump and pushed a message of party unity.
“We need a commander in chief who can lead 24 hours a day and seven days a week,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis had been reluctant to aggressively target Trump during his own campaign for the White House. But he did eventually step up his political attacks, making repeated reference to "porn star hush money payments", a reference to the criminal case Trump lost in New York.
DeSantis ended his remarks saying, "fight, fight, fight" echoed Trump's own words immediately after he was hit in the ear by a would-be assassin's bullet on Saturday. It's become a calling cry for Republicans at this convention.
Haley took a softer tone, after forcefully criticising her former rival on the campaign trail, calling him "toxic" and a man who "lacks moral clarity”.
She appealed across the aisle for all Americans to unify behind Trump.
“We must also expand the party. We are so much better when we are bigger,” she said.
She said Americans did not need to agree with Trump 100% of the time, referencing her own disagreements with the former president.
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As we wait for the next speaker to arrive, a Trump-themed cover of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" blasts over the jumbotron.
The iconic beat is the same, but the lyrics have been given a Republican rewrite.
"Trump, Trump, baby / America needs saving," goes one sample verse.
