Eight countries have been added to a UK Foreign Office (FCDO) list warning Britons of a risk of methanol poisoning from tainted alcohol.

Guidance has been added to the FCDO’s travel pages for Ecuador, Kenya, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Uganda and Russia after an increase in cases of serious illness and death caused by alcoholic drinks tainted with methanol.

The list previously only included methanol poisoning guidance for countries where British nationals have been affected.

This included: Cambodia, Indonesia, Turkey, Costa Rica, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Fiji.

Last year, British backpacker Simone White died in Laos, after reportedly drinking “free shots” from a local bar in the resort of Vang Vieng.

The 28-year-old from Orpington, Kent, was one of four, including an Australian woman and two Danish women, who died after being treated for methanol poisoning.

As part of the FCDO Travel Aware campaign, it is issuing information on recognising the symptoms and reducing the risks of methanol poisoning.

Hamish Falconer, the minister responsible for consular and crisis, said: “Methanol poisoning can kill – it can be difficult to detect when drinking and early symptoms mirror ordinary alcohol poisoning. By the time travellers realise the danger, it can be too late.

“I encourage all travellers to check our travel advice and Travel Aware pages before they go on holiday.”

What is methanol?

Methanol, or CH3OH, is very similar to ethanol – the pure form of alcohol in alcoholic drinks.

Like ethanol, it is an odourless, tasteless, and highly flammable liquid – but it has a different chemical structure that makes it toxic for humans.

Otherwise known as wood alcohol, methanol is most often used to make solvents, pesticides, paint thinners, and alternative fuels.

What makes it so dangerous is the way our bodies metabolise it.

Once consumed, our enzymes metabolise methanol into formaldehyde, the substance used to make industrial glue and embalming substances, before breaking it down into formic acid.

“The formic acid upsets the acid balance in blood and the major consequence is initially the effect on someone’s breathing. There are effects on many other organs, the kidney being one,” says Professor Alastair Hay, emeritus professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds.

“Formaldehyde attacks nerves, particularly the optic nerve and blindness is a potential risk,” he adds.

How does it end up in alcoholic drinks?

In southeast Asia and other popular tourist destinations, methanol can be found in alcoholic drinks for two main reasons.

Firstly, it is cheaper than ethanol, so it is sometimes added instead to save costs, before the counterfeit alcohol is bottled and sold in shops and bars.

Alternatively, it can occur by accident when alcohol is homemade – something common across the region.

When alcohol is distilled and fermented without the appropriate monitoring, it can sometimes produce methanol in toxic quantities.

Because it is impossible to tell the difference between methanol and ethanol content without specialist equipment, homemade drinks are often offered to tourists without anyone knowing how dangerous they are.

What are the symptoms of methanol poisoning?

Methanol is highly toxic, so as little as 25ml can prove fatal.

Methanol poisoning can be treated by using ethanol to counter the effects on the body – but only within the first 10 to 30 hours after consumption.

This makes early diagnosis and warnings to others critical. Some symptoms, however, can appear 12–48 hours after drinking.

The most common symptoms are:

• Vomiting and nausea;
• Changes in vision, including blurring, loss of sight, tunnel vision and difficulty looking at bright lights;
• Abdominal and muscle pain;
• Dizziness and confusion;
• Drowsiness and fatigue.

Methanol poisoning symptoms are similar to those from alcohol poisoning – but are often more severe. If drinks were left unattended or your symptoms appear disproportionate to the amount you drank, it could be methanol poisoning, authorities warn.

How is it treated?

Professor Hay says treatment involves removing methanol from the blood via dialysis – while “keeping someone mildly drunk” by giving them ethanol at the same time.

“The principle behind administering ethanol is quite simple; it delays methanol metabolism,” he says.

“Both alcohols are broken down by the same liver enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase. But the enzyme prefers ethanol.

“So ethanol acts as a competitive inhibitor largely preventing methanol breakdown, but markedly slowing it down, allowing the body to vent methanol from the lungs and some through the kidneys, and a little through sweat.”

This avoids the process of methanol ultimately metabolising as formic acid, he adds.

How can you avoid it while travelling?

The most commonly affected drinks are:

• Local spirits, such as rice and palm liquor, often labelled ‘special’ or ‘happy’ drinks;
• Spirit-based mixed drinks such as cocktails;
• Counterfeit brand-name bottled alcohol sold in bars and shops.

In order to minimise risks, travellers should:

• Buy alcohol only from licensed bars, hotels, or shops;
• Check labels for signs bottles may be counterfeit, including poor print quality or spelling errors;
• Avoid homemade alcohol;
• Check bottles are properly sealed before drinking from them;
• Avoid free drinks you have not seen poured yourself;
• Do not leave drinks or food unattended.

A 100-strong specialist police unit is investigating the daring theft of French Crown Jewels from the Louvre – as officers face “a race against time” to recover the “priceless” objects.

On Sunday, four thieves stole nine items – one of which was dropped and recovered at the scene – in a heist pulled off while the central Paris museum was open to visitors.

What do we know about the police investigation?

A huge police operation to find the culprits and the jewels is now under way – with one expert describing the probe as “one of the biggest manhunts in French history”.

Paris prosecutors have entrusted the investigation to a specialised unit known as the BRB, which often deals with high-profile robberies.

A former officer who served in the unit has said it handled the 2016 Kim Kardashian probe, after a gang stormed the reality TV star’s Paris apartment, tied her up and escaped with jewellery worth an estimated $6m (£4.4m).

Read more: What will happen to the stolen jewellery?

Pascal Szkudlara said the BRB has around 100 agents, with over a dozen who specialise in museum thefts.

Investigators are examining video evidence, telephone records and forensic evidence, while also speaking to informants.

Mr Szkudlara said the BRB “can have teams working on it 24/7 and for a long period”, adding he has “100%” confidence the thieves will be caught.

Art detective Arthur Brand – who helps police across Europe with investigations into missing works – has said officers will also be reviewing security footage going back weeks, looking to identify suspicious people casing out the gallery.

What do we know about the culprits?

Only a small pool of criminals would be capable of a job as audacious as Sunday’s heist and they may already be known to police, specialists say.

Art theft expert Anthony Amore told Sky News the culprits are “probably a European criminal gang”.

“The idea it’s professional thieves like you see in Ocean’s 11, it’s not that,” he told presenter Anna Botting. “It’s the sort of people who do this in all sorts of venues, so they are professional in that sense. They had this very well planned out.”

What have officers found so far?

As well as recovering one of the stolen items – a crown that once belonged to Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugenie – at the scene, French Culture Minister Rachida Dati said police have found “motorcycles and a licence plate”.

They have also recovered evidence from a cherry picker used by the thieves to access the first-floor Galerie d’Apollon, where the jewels were on display.

Read more:
The stolen items revealed
Workers ‘repeatedly warned of security shortcomings’

Ms Dati added: “I also want to pay tribute to the security officers who prevented the basket lift from being set on fire.

“One of the criminals tried to set it on fire, but they forced him to flee.”

Police face ‘a race against time’

Art detective Mr Brand told Sky News the likelihood of the loot being found intact is reducing every day.

“These crown jewels are so famous, you just cannot sell them,” he explained. “The only thing they can do is melt the silver and gold down, dismantle the diamonds, try to cut them. That’s the way they will probably disappear forever.”

He said officers will need to catch the thieves within the week to preserve any hopes of the jewels being recovered.

“If it takes longer, the loot is probably gone and dismantled,” he said. “It’s a race against time.”

The jewels stolen from the Louvre are worth an estimated €88m (£76m), a Paris prosecutor has said.

Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said about 100 investigators were involved in the police hunt for the suspects and the gems following the heist on Sunday from the world’s most-visited museum.

“The wrongdoers who took these gems won’t earn €88m if they had the very bad idea of disassembling these jewels,” she told broadcaster RTL.

“We can perhaps hope that they’ll think about this and won’t destroy these jewels without rhyme or reason.”

It comes after France’s culture minister said the security apparatus installed at the Louvre worked properly during the theft, after questions emerged about the security and whether security cameras might have failed.

The thieves rode a basket lift up the Louvre’s facade, forced a window open, smashed display cases and then fled with the priceless Napoleonic jewels.

“The Louvre museum’s security apparatus did not fail, that is a fact,” the minister, Rachida Dati. “The Louvre museum’s security apparatus worked.”

‘A wound for all of us’

Ms Dati said she had launched an administrative inquiry, in addition to the police investigation, to ensure full transparency into what happened.

She described the heist as a painful injury for France, saying it was “a wound for all of us”.

“Why? Because the Louvre is far more than the world’s largest museum. It’s a showcase for our French culture and our shared patrimony.”

Read more:
How ‘one of the biggest manhunts in French history’ is unfolding
What will happen to the stolen jewellery?

Cameras ‘all around the Louvre’

On Monday, France’s interior minister, Laurent Nunez, said the museum’s alarm was triggered when the thieves forced the window of the Apollo Gallery.

Police officers arrived at the site two or three minutes after they were called by an individual who witnessed the scene, he said on LCI TV.

Officials said the heist lasted less than eight minutes, including less than four minutes inside the Louvre.

Read more:
The stolen items revealed
Workers ‘repeatedly warned of security shortcomings’

Mr Nunez did not disclose details about video surveillance cameras that may have filmed the thieves around and in the museum, pending a police investigation.

“There are cameras all around the Louvre,” he said.

According to officials, eight items were stolen during the heist:

• A tiara from the set of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense
• A necklace from the sapphire set of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense
• A single earring, from the pair belonging to the sapphire set of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense
• An emerald necklace from the Empress Marie Louise set
• A pair of emerald earrings from the Empress Marie Louise set
• A brooch known as the “reliquary brooch”
• The tiara of Empress Eugenie
• A large corsage bow brooch of Empress Eugenie

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