Numerous teenagers among the dead identified in Crans-Montana blaze, police say

Teenagers as young as 14 and 15 years old were among those who died in the bar fire on New Year’s Eve that killed 40 people in Switzerland, police said on Sunday, as the Pope passed on his sympathies to the victims and their families.

Police in Valais said they had identified 16 more of those who died in the blaze in Crans-Montana, one of the worst disasters in recent Swiss history.

Those newly identified victims on Sunday included 10 Swiss nationals, two Italians, one person with Italian-Emirati citizenship, one Romanian, one person from France and one from Turkey, Valais police said. No names were given.

Hundreds of mourners gathered for a church service in the town on Sunday morning, where Bishop Jean-Marie Lovey said expressions of sympathy had been expressed from across the world, including from the Pope.

“Countless people join us — people whose hearts are broken,” Lovey told the service. “Many expressions of sympathy and solidarity reach us.

“Pope Leo XIV joins in our sorrow,” added Lovey. “In a moving message, he expresses his compassion and his care for the victims’ families and strengthens the courage of all who are suffering.”

The youngest person identified so far is a 14-year-old Swiss girl, while two 15-year-old girls, also from Switzerland, were among the dead.

Ten of the other bodies identified on Sunday were teenagers aged 16 to 18, police said. Also identified were two Swiss men aged 20 and 31, and a French national aged 39.

In total, police have identified 24 of those who died in the blaze in the mountain resort.

Late on Saturday, police said two Swiss women aged 24 and 22 along with two Swiss men aged 21 and 18 had been identified.

The mother of a 16-year-old Swiss boy Arthur Brodard confirmed overnight that he was among those confirmed dead in the fire.

“Our Arthur has departed to party in heaven,” Laetitia Brodard-Sitre said on her Facebook page.

“Now we can start our mourning, knowing he is in peace,” she said.

The fire likely started when “fountain candle” sparklers were held aloft too close to the ceiling at the Constellation bar, the region’s chief prosecutor has said.

Some 119 people suffered injuries, including severe burns, with many transferred to burn units in hospitals around Europe. Work on identifying the dead and the injured is continuing, the police said.

Two people who ran the bar are under criminal investigation on suspicion of offences including homicide by negligence, prosecutors said on Saturday.