Thai police: Traces of cyanide discovered next to six dead victims in Bangkok hotel room

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin arrives at the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. Police said several people were found dead at the luxury hotel in downtown Bangkok on Tuesday and poisoning is suspected. (AP Photo/Napat Kongsawad)

BANGKOK (AP) — The head of the Thai police’s forensic department said Wednesday that police found traces of cyanide in the coffee of six people found dead in a luxury hotel in central Bangkok.

The bodies were found on Tuesday at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel in downtown Bangkok. After checking hotel records, there were no other guests in the room other than the six found, police said.

According to police reports from the Grand Hyatt hotel, no other visitors had been in the room where the bodies were found on Tuesday. They were last seen alive on Monday afternoon when food was brought to the room. Trairong Piwpan, chief of the Bangkok police’s forensic department, said traces of cyanide were found in the empty cups police found in the room. However, the first results of an autopsy are expected on Thursday.

Bangkok police chief Lt. Gen. Thiti Sangsawang identified the dead as two Vietnamese Americans and four Vietnamese citizens, saying they were three men and three women.

The suspected motive for the fatal act may have been that a couple had deposited money in a bank and felt it was not being used properly, said Noppasin Punsawat, deputy police chief of Bangkok, citing information from relatives of the victims.