Swiss police identify all bodies after deadly New Year’s Eve bar fire
Swiss police say they have identified all of those who died during a fatal fire in a bar on New Year’s Eve that killed 40 people, in one of the country’s deadliest disasters, Al Jazeera reports.
According to the police on Sunday, those identified include 21 Swiss nationals, six Italians – including one person with Italian-Emirati citizenship – one Romanian, nine people from France, and one from Turkiye.
The youngest to have been killed was a 14-year-old Swiss girl, followed by two 15-year-old Swiss girls. The oldest was a French national, aged 39.
The blaze took place at the Le Constellation bar in the mountain resort of Crans-Montana, southern Switzerland, and also injured about 119 people, some of whom suffered severe burns and were transferred to burn units across Europe.
For the local community, the aftermath of the tragic fire is causing acute distress.
Damiano Vizioli, a 24-year-old living in neighbouring Sion, was in Le Constellation on New Year’s Eve but had gone outside to smoke a cigarette when the bar was suddenly engulfed in flames.
“I’m not sleeping well because I can hear the people screaming,” Vizioli told the Reuters news agency. He went back to the bar, desperate for news of a friend working there whom he has not heard from since.
Eric Schmid, a 63-year-old local businessman, also told Reuters that the disaster will be felt “quite deep, and I think it’ll take time to heal”.
“We [the Swiss] are mountain people. We will survive, of course, but that’s not the most important thing,” he said.
“It’s more about the kids and all these people who have been affected. But the messages and signs of solidarity are super important,” he added.
Swiss prosecutors said on Saturday two people who ran the bar are under criminal investigation on suspicion of offences including homicide by negligence.
Valais cantonal police said Sunday it has identified 16 more victims who died in the fire in Crans-Montana.
