Swiss face painful race to identify victims of lethal bar fire

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.

So severe were the burns suffered by the mostly young crowd of revelers 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.

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.

"The first objective is to assign names to all the bodies," Crans-Montana's mayor Nicolas Feraud told a press conference on Thursday evening. This, he said, could take days.

Mathias Reynard, head of government of the canton of Valais, said experts were using dental and DNA samples for the task.

"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," he said.

Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who took over on Thursday, called the fire "a calamity of unprecedented, terrifying proportions", and announced that flags would be flown at half mast for five days.

"Behind these figures are faces, names, families, lives brutally cut short, completely interrupted, or forever changed," Parmelin said at a press conference.

Nationalities of the victims 

"Given the international nature of the Crans resort, we can expect foreign nationals to be among the victims," local police commander Frederic Gisler said.

Italy and France are among the countries that have said some of their nationals are missing and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani will visit Crans-Montana on Friday, Italy's ambassador to Switzerland Gian Lorenzo Cornado said.

Emanuele Galeppini, a 16-year-old Italian international golfer who lived in Dubai, was named on Friday as the first of several possible victims.

"The Italian Golf Federation mourns the passing of Emanuele Galeppini, a young athlete who carried with him passion and genuine values," the federation said in a statement.

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

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 bar 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.

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

What caused the fire?

What caused the blaze was unclear. Swiss authorities said it appeared to be an accident rather than an attack, but have otherwise declined to speculate on the cause.

The canton's chief prosecutor, Beatrice Pilloud said investigators would look into whether the bar met safety standards and had the required number of exits.

Several witness accounts, broadcast by Swiss, French and Italian media, pointed to sparklers apparently mounted on champagne bottles and held aloft by restaurant staff as part of a regular "show" for patrons who made special orders to their tables.

There were "waitresses with champagne bottles and little sparklers. They got too close to the ceiling, and suddenly it all caught fire", Axel, a witness, told the Italian media outlet Local Team.

Nathan, who was in the bar before the blaze, saw burned people streaming out of the site. 

"They were asking for help, crying out for help," he said.

Other witnesses arrived to find a scene of horror. 

"We thought it was just a small fire – but when we got there, it was war," said Mathys, from neighboring Chermignon-d'en-Bas. "That's the only word I can use to describe it: the apocalypse."

Multiple sources told news agencies that the bar owners are French nationals: a couple originally from Corsica who, according to a relative, are safe, but have been unreachable since the tragedy.

The agonizing wait  

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.

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."

For others, the feeling was not relief but anguish as they waited for confirmation.  

"We've tried to reach our friends. We took loads of photos and posted them on Instagram, Facebook, all possible social networks to try to find them," said Eleonore, 17. "But there's nothing. No response."

"Even the parents don't know," she added.