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Sarah Carter - Source: Facebook -
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The government is demanding answers over the death of a young New Zealand woman in Thailand last month.
Thai officials held a press conference in Chiang Mai but they still could not confirm the cause of death for Sarah Carter, 23.
Foreign Minister Murray McCully said New Zealand had been waiting to see what the Thai authorities, the governor and his colleagues have to say. The reponse from officials was ''less than fully convincing", McCully said, adding that the government would be asking further questions.
He said he wants ''further scrutiny" and the government is looking forward to seeing the results of more forensic work on samples.
Three other visitors died last month at the same hotel where Carter and her two friends were staying when they got sick. They were admitted to hospital where Carter later died.
The death was initially blamed on some toxic seaweed Carter had eaten from a market-place, but this was later disputed.
Carter's friend Amanda Eliason, 24, from Kaponga in Taranaki, underwent emergency surgery as a toxin also attacked her heart. She is said to be recovering well.
Their other friend Emma Langlands, 23, was not in as serious a condition.
And American woman Mariam Soraya Vorster, 33, died in similar circumstances at a different hotel in Chiang Mai three weeks before Carter. Her death was also initially blamed on food poisoning but authorities now say they are yet to find believable causes for any of the five deaths.
Phuket Wan Tourism News says Chiang Mai's ''fatal attraction'' is beginning to impact on the city's tourism.
The deaths have triggered increasing concern in Thailand, New Zealand and in Britain, home of George and Eileen Everitt who died suspiciously at the Downtown Inn, along with Thai Waraporn Pungmahisiranon.
Waraporn died two days before Carter and the Everitts died less than two weeks later.
Vorster's death on January 11 has only recently been revealed.
The cases resemble the mysterious deaths of two young female tourists who took ill while staying in adjoining rooms at the Laleena Guesthouse on Phi Phi in 2009. No cause of deaths has ever been established.
A city-wide inspection of restaurants and hotels has been ordered.
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