Families await confirmation through DNA testing as severe burns delay identification
\n Crans-Montana
\nInvestigators on Friday set about identifying the burned bodies of a blaze that engulfed a crowded bar, killing around 40 people and injuring 115 at a New Year\u2019s Eve party in the upscale Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana.
\nThe severity of the burns suffered by the young crowd of revellers in the Le Constellation bar will cause the identification process to take days, according to Swiss officials.
\nParents of missing youths anxiously 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.
\n\u201cThe first objective is to assign names to all the bodies,\u201d Crans-Montana\u2019s mayor, Nicolas Feraud, told a press conference on Thursday evening. This, he said, could take days.
\nMathias Reynard, head of government of the canton of Valais, said experts were using dental and DNA samples for the task.
\n\u201cAll 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% sure,\u201d he said.
\nWhat caused the blaze was unclear. Swiss authorities said it appeared to be an accident rather than an attack.
\nSome accounts from survivors and footage broadcast on social media suggested that the ceiling of the bar\u2019s basement may have caught fire when sparkling candles got too close.
\nRead: Explosion in Swiss ski resort bar leaves around 40 dead, 100 injured
\nResidents 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.
\nHundreds of people stood in silence near the scene as they came to pay their respects to the victims on Thursday night.
\n\u201cYou think you\u2019re safe here, but this can happen anywhere. They were people like us,\u201d said Piermarco Pani, an 18-year-old who, like many others in the town, knew the bar well.
\nDozens 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.
\nBehind 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.
\nKean 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.
\nElisa Sousa, 17, said she was meant to be there but ended up spending the evening at a family gathering instead.
\n\u201cAnd honestly, I\u2019ll need to thank my mother a hundred times for not letting me go,\u201d she said at the vigil for the victims. \u201cBecause God knows where I\u2019d be now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Families await confirmation through DNA testing as severe burns delay identification Crans-Montana Investigators on Friday set about identifying the burned bodies of a blaze that engulfed a crowded bar, killing around 40 people and injuring 115 at a New Year\u2019s Eve party in the upscale Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana. The severity of the burns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-523508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n