‘These kids were abandoned’: Anger grows over Swiss fire as police confirm Australian among those hurt

2 months ago 19

By Dave Graham and Cecile Mantovani

January 6, 2026 — 8.19am

Crans-Montana, Switzerland: Anger is growing in Italy over a fire in a Swiss bar on New Year’s Day that left 40 people dead, including five Italian teenagers whose bodies were repatriated on Monday.

As well as the 40 people killed in the blaze that tore through Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana ski resort, Swiss police say they have also now identified all 116 of those injured and confirmed one was Australian. Two-thirds of those hurt are still being treated in hospitals across Europe.

Police officers carry the coffin of an Italian teenager killed in the Swiss fire on to a plane at Sion airport.

“In civilized Switzerland, the prison gates will have to open for quite a few people,” Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said in a social media post, adding there had been a failure to ensure the bar’s basement was safe, questioning the emergency systems and whether there had been enough inspections.

Authorities are investigating the two people who ran the bar on suspicion of crimes including homicide by negligence. On Sunday, police said circumstances did not currently merit the couple being put under arrest and they did not believe they posed a flight risk, but Swiss newspaper Blick questioned why they were still free.

Most of those killed were teenagers, authorities said, with the youngest aged only 14. They came from all over Europe, including several from France and Italy. On Monday, Italian authorities flew home the bodies of five teenage victims from the airport in Sion, the regional capital. A sixth Italian teenager lived in Switzerland, where she will be buried.

Investigators have said they believe festive sparkling candles atop champagne bottles ignited the fire when they came too close to the ceiling. Some of the victims were so badly burnt that families had to give authorities DNA samples to help with identification.

People light candles and place floral tributes outside the sealed-off Le Constellation bar.

Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, told Italian media that the fire could have been avoided, and the owners of the bar were irresponsible.

“It seems that the owners of Le Constellation wanted to save money on everything so that they could make bigger profits. I can find no other reason,” he told La Stampa.

“This was not a case of bad luck or misfortune … a modicum of common sense and some prevention measures would have been enough to avoid it.

“It appears that there was just one emergency exit and it was not easily identifiable. There were very few security staff – possibly just one. They probably also lacked fire extinguishers. The soundproofing panels that were attached to the ceiling were highly flammable.

An Italian Air Force plane prepares to take home the bodies of five Italian teenagers killed in a Swiss bar fire on New Year’s Day.

“These kids were abandoned. They were left alone in the midst of a disaster.”

The injured include 68 Swiss citizens, 21 French nationals, 10 Italians, four Serbs, two Poles and one person each from Australia, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Portugal and the Republic of Congo, according to a police statement. There were also four dual nationals: of 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 didn’t give further details or specify their ages.

Tages-Anzeiger, another leading Swiss newspaper, said questions must be answered about age checks at the bar, the soundproofing material used in the basement and the standards governing use of the so-called fountain candles believed to have triggered the fire.

Italian teenager Emanuele Galeppini was killed in the fire.

One of the bar’s two operators, Jacques Moretti, told Swiss media that Le Constellation had been checked three times in 10 years and that everything was done according to the rules.

Authorities in the canton of Valais said investigators were checking if the bar had undergone its annual building inspections, but that the town had not raised concerns or reported defects to the canton.

The municipality of Crans-Montana said it has handed prosecutors documents relevant to the investigation and had joined the criminal proceedings as a civil party.

“This will allow [the municipality] to actively contribute to establishing all the facts,” it said.

Crans-Montana will on Friday hold a ceremony honouring the victims. The French government said president Emmanuel Macron would attend.

Reuters