The Foreign Affairs Department is confirming that a Canadian citizen has died in Vietnam but has not divulged details about the circumstances of the death, nor the identity of the individual, citing privacy concerns.

However, the English-language website of a local paper, Tuoi Tre, has identified the Canadian as 26-year-old Cathy Huynh and it also reports that her travelling companion, a 27-year-old American woman, also died.

The newspaper says the two women were sharing a room in the southern coastal town of Nha Trang.

Quoting hospital officials, the article says Huynh took the American woman, Karin Joy Bowerman, to hospital Monday night after she became ill.

Bowerman eventually died of respiratory failure, then Huynh became ill and died early Thursday.

Doctors have not determined the cause of the women's death, according to Dr Nguyen Van Xang, of Khanh Hoa Province General Hospital.

The newspaper says authorities coordinated with the U.S. consulate general in Vietnam to complete an autopsy on Bowerman. She has been cremated and her ashes have been sent back to the U.S.

The paper says Huynh’s family want to have her body shipped back to Canada. Her friends and family have set up a web page to raise money to return her body to Canada.

Nha Trang ((Google Map)) With files from The Canadian Press