Swiss bus fire that killed six caused by ‘disturbed’ man setting himself alight, prosecutor says | Switzerland

Police investigating a bus fire that killed at least six people in western Switzerland say they believe it was started by a “marginalised and disturbed” Swiss man who set himself on fire.

The vehicle, operated by a shuttle carrying passengers and mail, burst into flames on Tuesday evening in Kerzers, a town of about 5,000 people in the canton of Fribourg, about 20 kilometers west of Bern.

“Witness testimony stated that a man of Swiss origin boarded the bus with bags. At one point he doused himself in a flammable substance and set himself on fire,” Raphael Bourquin, the prosecutor of the canton of Fribourg, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

He said the family of the man, who is from the canton of Bern and is in his 60s, had recently reported his disappearance and that “available evidence identifies him as an isolated and disturbed individual”.

“There is absolutely no evidence that this could have been an act of terrorism,” Bourquin said, adding that “it appears that this person was among the dead.”

Public prosecutors launched a criminal investigation.

6 people died and 5 people were injured in the fire. Police could not say how many passengers were on the bus at the time.

Fribourg police communications chief Martial Pugin said two of the victims were in serious condition, while the third was able to return home overnight. Authorities said the victims’ ages ranged from 17 to 65, but did not provide details about their nationalities.

Guy Parmelin, the president of Switzerland, whose country suffered a devastating fire in the Crans-Montana ski resort on New Year’s Eve, expressed his condolences to the families of the victims. “I am shocked and saddened that people have once again lost their lives in a serious fire in Switzerland,” he said.

In the early hours of January 1, a basement bar in Crans-Montana went up in flames as people were celebrating the new year. Forty-one people died and 115 people were injured.

In the images shared by the Kerzers on social media, high flames and black smoke rising from the windows of the bus were seen rising into the sky. Emergency services teams worked at the scene until late at night.

The video taken after the fire was extinguished shows the burnt remains of the yellow vehicle. It was removed from the road during the night.

“It all happened so fast and within minutes everything was up in flames,” an eyewitness told media outlet Blick. “The heat even caused the tires to burst and fly 200 meters away.”

Others told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper that they saw injured people screaming and writhing in pain in the street. “It was terrible,” said Hans-Jürg Stocker, who lives near the scene.

Two women working in a building near the fire scene reported hearing a large explosion and people throwing objects at the bus. “It looked like they wanted to break the windows to free people,” one of the women told the Tages-Anzeiger.

Nirosan Vickneswaran, 37, was anxiously awaiting news of his cousin, who was on the bus engulfed in flames. “We don’t know if he is injured or if his condition is worse,” he told Reuters. He stated that police had taken DNA samples from the family and it could take up to 48 hours to find out.

Mina Gendre was about to close the shop where she worked when she saw a small fire inside the bus that stopped unexpectedly across the road. He said he was engulfed in flames about half a minute later.

“It was very shocking. I saw someone running out of the bus in flames,” he said. As smoke rose from the bus, Gendre closed the door to protect the shop while the surrounding people helped extinguish the fire on a person in a jacket.

Fribourg state council member Romain Collaud said that the bus involved in the incident was not an electric vehicle. Although the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, the possibility that the electric motor caught fire is unlikely. “It was a combustion engine bus,” the broadcaster told RTS.

The vehicle involved was a PostBus, a fixture of rural life in the Alps. Distinctive yellow buses serve people in more remote areas, connecting them to towns and carrying letters and parcels. They are used by approximately half a million people, including school children, every day.

PostBus CEO Stefan Regli said in a statement: “What happened yesterday is a terrible tragedy. Like me, all employees of PostBus and Swiss Post are in shock.”

Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report