Swiss bar fire kills 40, victims include children as young as 14

ZURICH: Teenagers as young as 14 and 15 were among those who died in the New Year’s Eve bar fire that killed 40 people in Switzerland, police said on Sunday, as the Pope offered his sympathies to the victims and their families.

Police in Valais said they had identified 16 more of those who died in the blaze in Crans-Montana, one of the worst disasters in recent Swiss history.

The newly identified victims included 10 Swiss nationals, two Italians, one person with Italian-Emirati citizenship, one Romanian, one person from France and one from Turkey, Valais police said. No names were released.

Hundreds of mourners attended a church service in the town on Sunday morning, where Bishop Jean-Marie Lovey said condolences had poured in from around the world, including from the Pope.

“Countless people join us — people whose hearts are broken,” Lovey told the service. “Many expressions of sympathy and solidarity reach us.

“Pope Leo XIV joins in our sorrow,” he added. “In a moving message, he expresses his compassion and his care for the victims’ families and strengthens the courage of all who are suffering.”

MORE VICTIMS IDENTIFIED

The youngest person identified so far is a 14-year-old Swiss girl, while two 15-year-old girls, also from Switzerland, were among the dead.

Ten of the other bodies identified on Sunday were teenagers aged 16 to 18, police said. Also identified were two Swiss men aged 20 and 31, and a French national aged 39.

In total, police have identified 24 of those who died in the blaze in the mountain resort.

Late on Saturday, police said two Swiss women aged 24 and 22, along with two Swiss men aged 21 and 18, had been identified.

The mother of a 16-year-old Swiss boy Arthur Brodard confirmed overnight that he was among those killed.

“Our Arthur has departed to party in heaven,” Laetitia Brodard-Sitre said on her Facebook page.

“Now we can start our mourning, knowing he is in peace,” she said.

NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING

Switzerland will hold a national day of 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 newspaper Sonntagsblick.

The fire likely started when “fountain candle” sparklers were held aloft too close to the ceiling at the Constellation bar, the region’s chief prosecutor has said.

Some 119 people were injured, including many with severe burns, and several were transferred to burn units in hospitals across Europe. Work on identifying the dead and injured is continuing, the police said.

Two people who ran the bar are under criminal investigation on suspicion of offences including homicide by negligence, prosecutors said on Saturday.