Daily London
“I want to know, where is my child, and be by his side. Wherever that may be, be it in the intensive care unit or the morgue.”
The severity of the burns has made it difficult to identify both the injured and deceased, requiring families to supply authorities with DNA samples. In some cases, wallets and any identification documents inside turned to ash in the flames. An Instagram account has filled up with photos of people who were unaccounted for, and friends and relatives begged for tips about their whereabouts.
Officials in the Valais regional government acknowledged the prolonged heartache.
“You will understand that the priority today is truly placed on identification, in order to allow the families to begin their mourning,” Beatrice Pilloud, the Valais region’s attorney general, told reporters on Friday during a news conference.
Mathias Reynard, head of the regional government, added: “We are aware of the particularly difficult hours, of the unbearable side of every minute that passes without answers.”
‘You can’t imagine the pain I saw’
Australian Yaron Lavy was on his way to Le Constellation bar but made a detour to get a drink of water.
“It would have been me if I went a bit earlier,” Lavy told 9News.
“I would have been in the same state, it’s very shocking to learn that kids my age are in this state.”
The 17-year-old moved from Melbourne to Switzerland in 2019 and said he had multiple groups of friends inside.
“Six of them are being accounted missing,” Lavy said.
“Then I’ve still got a few that are still like that are either in the hospital or presume dead. “
Marc-Antoine Chavanon, 14, recounted how he rushed to the bar to help the injured.
“We were bringing people out, people were collapsing. We were doing everything we could to save them, we helped as many as we could, we saw people screaming, running,” Chavanon told The Associated Press in Crans-Montana on Friday.
“There was one of our friends: She was struggling to get out, she was all burned. You can’t imagine the pain I saw.”
Many of the injured were in their teens to mid-20s, police said. Authorities planned to look into whether sound-dampening material on the ceiling conformed with regulations and whether the candles were permitted for use in the bar.
Officials said they would also look at other safety measures on the premises, including fire extinguishers and escape routes. The region’s top prosecutor warned of possible prosecutions if any criminal liability is found.
Injured hailed from across Europe
The injured included 71 Swiss nationals, 14 French and 11 Italians, along with citizens of Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Luxembourg, Belgium, Portugal and Poland, according to Frédéric Gisler, police commander of the Valais region. The nationalities of 14 people were still unclear.
