Swiss officials face painful task of identifying victims of deadly bar fire

Swiss officials face painful task of identifying victims of deadly bar fire

Investigators are frantically looking for the cause of a devastating fire that ripped through a bar in Crans-Montana, a Swiss Alps town, on January 1st, 2018.

After the devastating earthquake that occurred in the early hours of 2026, killing about 40 people and injuring about 115 others, many of whom were seriously, relatives and friends have been searching for their loved ones.

Recommended Stories

list of 4 itemsend of list

Some of their locations are still visible here, Valais, a teenager who was present at the party, nodded as they entered the bar, which is now enclosed by opaque white tarpaulins and a wall of temporary barriers.

Another user, Eleonore, said, “We took a lot of photos and] we uploaded them to Instagram, Facebook, and every social network we could find them.”

“There is nothing, though. No response . The parents were called. Nothing . Even the parents are unaware, she continued.

Police have begun the laborious process of identifying the victims, but some of the bodies have already been badly burned, according to officials, which could take days or even weeks.

Mayor of Crans-Montana Nicolas Feraud stated at a press conference on Thursday evening that the first priority is to give names to all the bodies. He claimed that this could take several days.

The canton of Valais’s head of government Mathias Reynard claimed experts were using DNA and dental samples for the task.

Because the information is so devastating and sensitive, no one can tell the families until they are 100% certain, he said, “all this work needs to be done.”

Witnesses described scenes of panic and chaos as people attempted to break through the windows and pouring into the street with burns.

Police have not yet determined how many people are still missing from the bar’s exact number when it started to burn.

According to the Crans-Montana website, Le Constellation had a capacity of 300 people and added 40 more guests on its terrace. The border with Bern, the capital of Switzerland, is about 200 kilometers south.

According to Swiss media, more than 30 victims were transported to hospitals in Zurich and Lausanne, and six were to Geneva.

No official list of the people who went missing or how many people worked at Le Constellation that night is available.

According to information from Swiss authorities, 47 people have died in Italy, up from 40, according to Swiss officials.

Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, announced that some of its citizens are missing and that Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani will travel to Crans-Montana on Friday.

Five of the 112 injured have now been identified, according to Cornado. He continued, adding that 13 Italians have been taken into care. Six are still missing. He claimed that three Italians would be repatriated on Thursday and three more would follow on Friday.

Eight others remained unaccounted for, according to the French foreign ministry, who included nine French nationals among the injured.

The apocalypse is a movie.

The fire was described as “a calamity of unprecedented, terrifying proportions” by Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who took over on Thursday. Flags will be flown at half-staff for five days.

On Thursday at Le Constellation, a bar popular with young tourists, the fire started at around 11:30 am (00:30 GMT).

We initially believed it to be a small fire, but when we arrived, it turned out to be war,” according to Mathys of Chermignon-d’en-Bas, the neighbor. The apocalypse is the only word I can use to describe it, according to the author.

Authorities have stated that the tragedy was not an attack, and that they have only speculated on the cause.

Beatrice Pilloud, the canton’s chief prosecutor, said that the bar had the necessary number of exits and met safety standards.

Source: Aljazeera

234Radio

234Radio is Africa's Premium Internet Radio that seeks to export Africa to the rest of the world.