“If it can happen to her, it can happen to anybody”, the mother of British lawyer Simone White, who died in a suspected poisoning in Laos, has warned.

The 28-year-old, from Orpington, south-east London, was one of a number of people taken to hospital after drinking alcohol suspected to have been laced with methanol in the backpacking hotspot Vang Vieng.

She was one of six tourists to die in the incident.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, her mother Sue White urged those travelling abroad: “Please be careful when it comes to drinks.”

“Simone was a university-educated, highly intelligent person,” she said.

“If it can happen to her, it can happen to anybody.”

Ms White told the paper she received a call from the hospital to say her daughter needed urgent brain surgery and asking for her consent.

She described the flight to visit her daughter before she died as a “terrible, terrible journey”.

On the night she was poisoned, Simone and her friends drank six vodka shots served by the hostel, according to the newspaper.

After they fell ill, they decided to go to hospital.

Simone was taken in for surgery just as Ms White arrived at the hospital.

It later became clear that her brain function had gone, and she died on 21 November.

Police in Laos have detained several people in connection with the death of Simone White and five others.

However, officials in the country have released almost no details about the case, with the government keeping a tight lid on information.

Laos is a one-party communist state with no organised opposition.

Simone was a lawyer with global law firm Squire Patton Boggs.

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