Police identify all 116 people hurt in Swiss bar fire

Swiss police say they have identified all those injured in a deadly fire that ruined a New Year’s celebration at a crowded bar.

They determined the total number was 116, with more than two-thirds still in hospitals.

Authorities had previously announced that there were 119 injured in addition to the 40 dead.

But three people taken to hospitals on the night of the disaster in Crans-Montana were mistakenly linked to the fire at the crowded Le Constellation bar, police said on Monday.

According to the statement made by the police, the injured include 68 Swiss, 21 French citizens, 10 Italians, 4 Serbians, 2 Poles and one person each from Australia, Belgium, Bosnia, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Portugal and the Republic of Congo.

There were also four dual citizens: France and Finland, France and Italy, Switzerland and Belgium, and Italy and the Philippines.

Police said 83 of the injured were still in hospitals.

They did not provide further details or indicate their age.

The severity of the burns made it difficult to identify some of the victims in the fire, which broke out around 1:30 a.m. on New Year’s Eve, and required families to provide DNA samples to authorities.

Authorities announced Sunday evening that the identification of 40 people who died, the youngest of whom was 14 years old, had been completed.

On Monday, Italian authorities sent the bodies of the five victims home from the airport in the regional capital Sion.

Officials stood silently as Swiss police carried the coffins through a line of firefighters and soldiers onto an Italian Air Force C-130 cargo plane.

Mourners hugged relatives before boarding the plane.

Prosecutors said the fire, which spread rapidly in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, was likely caused by sparkling candles igniting the ceiling of the bar’s basement.

Swiss authorities launched a criminal investigation against bar managers.

According to the chief prosecutor of the Valais region, the two are suspected of unintentional murder, unintentional causing bodily harm and unintentionally causing a fire.

On Sunday, police said the circumstances did not warrant their arrest at this time and they were not considered a flight risk.

Crans-Montana will hold a ceremony honoring the victims on Friday.

The French government said President Emmanuel Macron would attend.

with AP