Authorities investigating a New Year's blaze at a club in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana have identified 24 of the 40 people killed, including 11 minors and six foreign nationals, police said Sunday as its owners were probed for negligent manslaughter.
A heavy pall of grief hung over the town as hundreds of people walked in silence to a chapel of rest near the scene following a memorial service for the victims of an inferno which also left 119 people injured – many badly burned – and left the local community distraught.
"It's to be together with the people who are suffering, who have lost somebody in the family, children or friends," said 76-year-old Charlotte Schumacher, a participant in the procession. "I know people who have lost their grandchildren."
"The world's media are focused on our resort. We thank them for seeking the compassion which the families of the injured and deceased so desperately need," said Bishop Jean-Marie Lovey of Sion during the service – one of a number planned.
Switzerland has declared a national day of mourning for January 9, with all the church bells in the country poised to ring at 2pm (1300 GMT).
A moment of silence is also planned.
"Many of the victims were apprentices, high school students, and university students," said Pastor Gilles Cavin, representing the Reformed Church of Switzerland at the memorial mass.
Local police, who had already identified eight Swiss victims, earlier announced that they had identified 10 more Swiss nationals – four females and six males aged 14-31, as well as two 16-year-old Italians, a 39-year-old Frenchman, a 16-year-old dual national of Italy and United Arab Emirates, an 18-year-old Romanian and an 18-year-old Turk.
The fatalities identified to date include 11 minors.
With Crans-Montana a popular destination for international tourists, many foreign nationals are among those hurt in the blaze.
They include 71 Swiss nationals, 14 French – the French foreign ministry gave a tally of 16 on Saturday – 11 Italians, four Serbs, a Belgian, a Bosnian, one person from Luxembourg and also a Pole and a Portuguese.
At the memorial mass Pastor Cavin told a packed church that "we are here to say that in the face of the unspeakable, in the face of the brutality of death and suffering, we refuse to look away. We are here to express our compassion, our solidarity”.
The church, located some 300m from the club, was packed well before the start of the mass, which was broadcast on a giant screen outside.
Despite temperatures dropping to -9° Celsius, hundreds of people stood outside, some holding bouquets of flowers, others a single red rose.
Regarding the likely cause of the fire, authorities have pointed the finger at lit sparklers attached to beverage bottles igniting foam on the ceiling.
French couple Jacques and Jessica Moretti owned and managed Le Constellation club, which was crammed with young partygoers when a blaze began in a packed basement around 1.30am (0030 GMT) on Thursday.
A criminal investigation has been opened against the pair.
They are charged with manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence.
Investigations will focus on whether safety standards were respected.
Jacques Moretti insisted to the Swiss press on Friday that all safety norms were followed at the club, which according to the Crans-Montana website had a capacity of 300 people plus 40 on its terrace.
Video footage which has emerged from the tragedy shows young people desperately trying to flee the scene, some breaking windows to try to force their way out.
One video shared on social media showed the low wooden ceiling – covered with soundproofing foam – catching fire and the flames spreading quickly, as revellers continued to dance.
Looking at the images of the event, experts suggested the "highly flammable" foam may have caused a flashover – a near-simultaneous ignition of everything in an enclosed space.
The mayor of Crans-Montana, Nicolas Feraud, assured Swiss public broadcaster RTS that there had been no negligence on the municipality's part.
For Patricia Mazzoni, a 55-year-old Swiss on holiday in Crans-Montana, what happened is simply incomprehensible.
"How is this possible, especially in Switzerland? I never would have imagined it. I'm filled with a cold anger," she told AFP.
The toll might have been worse if emergency services had not acted so quickly, residents said.
"Within minutes you had ambulances; within minutes you had the police that did their job and they did it unbelievably well," said Max Haus, a local business owner who witnessed the harrowing aftermath of the blaze.
As the sombre procession Sunday reached its conclusion, applause began rippling from one end to the other as dozens of police and emergency services workers, some of them in tears, came up through the middle to be celebrated as heroes.
"It's unimaginable what they did, what they have seen," Bruno Huggler, the director of tourism for Crans-Montana, said of the rescue workers. "And now it's very important to take care of them."
