Managers of Swiss bar where fire killed 40 during New Year’s event face criminal investigation
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The two managers of a Swiss bar where at least 40 people were killed in a devastating fire have been put under criminal investigation.
The managers of Le Constellation bar in the ski resort of Crans-Montana are suspected of negligent homicide, negligent bodily harm and causing fire by negligence, police said in a statement.
More than 100 people were injured in the fire which broke out in the early hours of Thursday as people celebrated the New Year.
The process of identifying the dead and injured was still underway on Saturday, making it an agonising wait for family and friends wanting to know about their loved ones.
It comes as an Italian 16-year-old was one of the first confirmed to have died in the fire, which prosecutors estimate reached between 400 and 600C.
Chiara Costanzo’s father, Andrea, told Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera that “my beloved Chiara is no more”.
Mr Costanzo told the news outlet earlier on Saturday that his daughter and her friends had chosen Le Constellation randomly, as other venues at the upmarket resort were full.
Swiss police said four victims had been identified as two Swiss women aged 21 and 16, and two Swiss men aged 18 and 16.
Their bodies have been returned to their families, police said.
On Friday, Italian national Emanuele Galeppini, 17 and a golf prodigy, was the first victim to be reported dead, with news confirmed by the Italian Golf Federation.
‘Bar checked thrice in 10 years’
From initial investigation work, sparklers on champagne bottles are believed to be the likely cause of the fire.
Switzerland’s President Guy Parmelin described the deadly incident as “one of the worst tragedies our country has ever known”.
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A Swiss business register lists French couple Jacques and Jessica Moretti as the owners of Le Constellation.
Switzerland’s Tribune de Geneve reported that Mr Moretti told the newspaper the bar had been checked “three times in 10 years” and that “everything was done within the standards”.
The couple have two other establishments, one in Crans-Montana and another in nearby Lens.
Investigators said the couple had been questioned, as have many others involved in the tragedy, as they gathered information on what happened at the New Year’s event and what work was carried out on the bar in the past.
