Police identify 16 more victims of Swiss bar fire

The bodies of 16 more victims of a bar fire in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana have been identified by police.

The youngest person was a Swiss girl aged 14, with nine aged under 18. The group includes people of Swiss, Italian, Romanian, Turkish and French nationalities, police said.

This brings the number of people who have been identified as killed in the fire to 24. Among them is 16-year-old Swiss national Arthur Brodard, his mother has said.

A criminal investigation into the people who ran Le Constellation bar is under way, while victim’s families are enduring an agonising wait for information about loved ones who are still considered missing.

Police said no further details will be released about the victims they had identified out of respect for their relatives.

However, Arthur Brodard’s mother took to Facebook on Saturday night to announce that he “has left to party in paradise”.

“We can start our mourning, knowing that he is in peace and in the light,” she said as she appeared visibly upset in a video message.

While Arthur was still presumed missing and information on his whereabouts was scarce, Ms Brodard-Sitre told local newspaper Le Temps that she had been “living a nightmare”.

Some of his friends had been found with burns covering nearly half their bodies, she told the newspaper. “There are no words – they went through hell.”

The devastating fire killed at least 40 people and injured 119 others.

Many of the dead and missing are teenagers. Le Constellation was a venue known to be popular with a younger crowd in the ski resort town, where the drinking age is 16.

The eight identified and returned to their families on Saturday were all aged between 16 and 24, Swiss authorities said.

On Saturday, the Italian ambassador to to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, said the identification process was slow because of the severity of the burns many victims had suffered.

The French couple who own the bar – named by the media as Jacques and Jessica Moretti – are suspected of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence, the prosecutors’ office for the Valais region said.

Beatrice Pilloud, Valais canton lead prosecutor, said in a statement that investigators were looking into whether the acoustic foam on the venue’s ceiling was “the cause of the problem”, as well as “whether it complies with regulations”.

Italian media named junior golfer Emanuele Galeppini, 16, as the first identified victim of the fire following a statement from the Italian Golf Federation paying tribute to the “young athlete who carried with him passion and authentic values”.

His father is quoted as saying his son was at Le Constellation. A spokesperson for the Italian foreign ministry previously told the BBC it would not confirm the death.