Swiss face painful task of identifying victims of deadly bar fire

Summary

• Severe burns making identification challenging
• Italy says death toll from blaze at 47
• Ski resort left stunned by tragic inferno

Investigators on Friday set about the painful task of identifying the burned bodies from a blaze that engulfed a crowded bar and killed around 40 people at a New Year's Eve party in the 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 those killed in the fire that also injured well over 100 people, many of them seriously.

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.

Desperate search

"I have been searching for my son for 30 hours. The wait is unbearable," Laetitia, the mother of missing 16-year-old Arthur, told BFM TV, saying she was desperate to know if he was alive or dead, and where.

"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."

Authorities have warned that naming the victims or establishing a definitive death toll would take time because many of the bodies were badly burned.

"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 percent sure," said Mathias Reynard, head of government of the canton of Valais. Experts were using dental and DNA samples to identify the victims, he 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."

Cause under investigation

The bodies of those killed in the fire 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.

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.

Italian, French among the missing

Italy and France are among the countries that have said some of their nationals are still missing.

Australia has also said one of its nationals was injured. Swiss officials have said around 40 people were killed but Italy has put the death toll at 47, based on information from Swiss authorities.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who is in Switzerland, said that only five of those treated in hospital for injuries were yet to be identified.

Several of those seriously injured are receiving care in hospitals in neighbouring countries, including France and Germany.

'It could have been us'

Visitors and 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.

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.

"It could have been us," Emma, an 18-year-old from Geneva, said outside the cordoned off bar.

"There was an enormous queue so we decided not to go in (to that bar on New Year's Eve)," she said. "I see those missing and it's all people our age."

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."