Investigators on Friday set about the painful task of identifying the burned bodies of a blaze that engulfed a crowded bar and killed around 40 people at a New Year’s Eve party in the upscale Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana.
Emanuele Galeppini, a 16-year-old Italian international golfer who lived in Dubai, was the first victim to be identified publicly on Friday.
So severe were the burns suffered by the mostly young crowd of revellers in the Le Constellation bar that Swiss officials said it could take days before they name all the victims of the fire that also injured well over 100 people, many of them seriously. A definitive death toll will also take time, they say.
“The first objective is to assign names to all the bodies,” Crans-Montana’s mayor, Nicolas Feraud, told a news conference on Thursday evening. This, he said, could take days.
Experts were using dental and DNA samples to identify the victims, he said.
Parents of missing youths issued pleas for news of their loved ones, as foreign embassies scrambled to work out if their nationals were among those caught up in one of the worst tragedies to befall modern Switzerland.
WATCH | Tragedy in Switzerland:
Deadly bar fire one of the ‘worst tragedies’ Switzerland has ever seen, president says
Swiss officials, including police representatives and the president, spoke Thursday after a deadly fire overnight at a bar in a resort community left around 40 reported dead, with many more severely injured.
“I have been searching for my son for 30 hours. The wait is unbearable,” Laetitia, the mother of a missing 16-year-old, Arthur, told BFM TV, saying she was desperate to know if he was alive or dead, and where he was.
“If he’s in the hospital, I don’t know which hospital he’s in. If he’s in the morgue, I don’t know which morgue he’s in. If my son is alive, he’s alone in the hospital and I can’t be by his side.”
In a statement Thursday, Global Affairs Canada said it is not aware of any Canadian citizens impacted by the incident.
Mathias Reynard, head of government of the Swiss canton of Valais, said experts were using dental and DNA samples for the task.
Young people mourn near the Le Constellation bar. Italy and France are among the countries that have said some of their nationals are missing. (Antonio Calanni/The Associated Press)
“All this work needs to be done because the information is so terrible and sensitive that nothing can be told to the families unless we are 100 per cent sure,” he said.
The bodies of those killed have now all been removed from the bar, a Swiss official told Reuters. Police were still on site to continue investigations into the cause of the tragedy, which Swiss authorities said they were treating as a fire, not an attack.
Italy and France are among the countries that have said some of their nationals are missing. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani will visit Crans-Montana on Friday, Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, said.
The Italian Golf Federation, which named the young Italian golfer as a victim, said it “mourns the passing of Emanuele Galeppini, a young athlete who carried with him passion and genuine values.”
Australia has also said one of its nationals was injured.
WATCH | New Year’s Eve celebration became deadly inferno:
Dozens dead in Swiss New Year’s Eve party fire
Officials say about 40 people are dead and 115 others injured, most of them seriously, after a fire tore through a crowded bar during a New Year’s Eve party in the upscale ski resort of Crans-Montana in southwestern Switzerland.
Swiss officials have said around 40 people were killed, but Italy has put the death toll at 47, based on information from Swiss authorities.
All but five of the 112 injured had been identified now, Cornado said. Six Italians are still missing and 13 hospitalized, he added. Three Italians were repatriated on Thursday and three more will follow on Friday, he said.
Cause under investigation
What caused the blaze was unclear. Some accounts from survivors and footage broadcast on social media suggested that the ceiling of the bar’s basement may have caught fire when sparkling candles got too close.
Residents of Crans-Montana, which has the distinction of being not only a popular draw for skiers, but also golfers, were stunned by the inferno. Many knew victims and some said they were lucky not to have been there themselves.
Hundreds of people stood in silence near the scene as they came to pay their respects to the victims on Thursday night. Switzerland has also ordered the national flag to be flown at half-mast for five days as a sign of mourning.
“You think you’re safe here, but this can happen anywhere. They were people like us,” said Piermarco Pani, an 18-year-old who, like many others in the town, knew the bar well.
Dozens of people left flowers or lit candles on a makeshift altar at the top of the road leading to the bar, which police had cordoned off. Some cried, others quietly hugged one another.
Firefighters leave flowers and candles near the bar where the deadly fire broke out. (Harold Cunningham/Getty Images)
Behind the cordon, the bodies of some victims still lay in the bar, police said, as they pledged to work around the clock to identify everyone who succumbed to the blaze.
Kean Sarbach, 17, said he had spoken to four people who escaped from the bar, some with burns, and that they had told him the flames had spread very quickly.
Elisa Sousa, 17, said she was meant to be there, but ended up spending the evening at a family gathering instead.
“And honestly, I’ll need to thank my mother a hundred times for not letting me go,” she said at the vigil for the victims. “Because God knows where I’d be now.”