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All 40 people who died in a New Year’s Eve bar fire in Switzerland have been identified, police said Sunday, with teenagers accounting for more than half of the victims.
The last 16 victims have now been identified, Valais police said, following the fire early on January 1 in the mountain resort of Crans-Montana.
The fire constitutes one of the worst disasters in recent Swiss history and has caused an outpouring of grief in Switzerland, which will hold a national day of mourning next week.
Hundreds of people staged a silent procession through the freezing streets of Crans-Montana on Sunday in memory of the victims of the fire, which also injured more than 100 people.
Earlier on Sunday, mourners attended a church service in the city where Archbishop Jean-Marie Lovey said condolences had poured in from around the world, including from the Pope.
“Countless people are joining us – people whose hearts are broken,” Lovey said during the service. “Many expressions of sympathy and solidarity are reaching us.
“Pope Leo XIV joins our sadness,” he added. “In a moving message, he expresses his compassion and concern for the families of the victims and strengthens the courage of all those who suffer.”
Teenagers among the dead
Some 26 of the 40 dead were teenagers, including a 14-year-old Frenchman and a 14-year-old Swiss man, police said. No names have been released.
In total, 21 of the dead were Swiss citizens, seven French and six Italians.
Other victims came from Romania, Turkey, Portugal, Belgium as well as a dual Swiss-French national and a 15-year-old girl with French, Israeli and British nationalities.
The mother of a 16-year-old Swiss boy, Arthur Brodard, confirmed overnight that he was one of those killed.
“Now we can begin our mourning, knowing that he is at peace,” Laetitia Brodard-Sitre said on her Facebook page.
National Day of Mourning
Switzerland will hold a day of national mourning on Friday, national president Guy Parmelin said on Sunday, with church bells ringing across the country and a minute’s silence planned.
“In this moment of reflection, everyone in Switzerland can personally remember the victims of the disaster,” Parmelin told the Sonntagsblick newspaper.
The fire likely started when flickering candles were held too close to the ceiling of the Constellation bar, the region’s chief prosecutor said.
WATCH | A witness says that burned victims were fleeing the bar:
Two witnesses who were in the resort town of Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on New Year’s Eve told reporters of the horror of watching people try to escape a raging bar fire. (WARNING: This video includes descriptions of the victims’ burns.)
Some 119 people were injured, many of them seriously burned.
The Swiss government announced on Sunday that 35 patients had been transferred from Swiss hospitals to specialized clinics in Belgium, France, Germany and Italy.
Two people who ran the bar are under criminal investigation on suspicion of crimes, including negligent homicide, police said on Sunday.
After an initial investigation, a criminal investigation was opened into the allegations against the two men also for negligent battery and negligent arson.
The two people, whose identities have not been released, were not taken into custody because there was no indication that they would try to evade the procedure, police said.
