People lay candles near the Le Constellation bar, where a devastating fire ripped through during the New Year's celebrations in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on Thursday.
CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland — Investigators on Friday set about the painful task of identifying the burned bodies of a blaze that engulfed a crowded bar �6�9 �6�9and killed around 40 people at a New Year's Eve party in the upscale Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana.
So severe were the burns suffered by the mostly young crowd of revelers at the Le Constellation bar that Swiss officials said it could take days before they name all the �6�9 �6�9victims of the fire that also injured well over 100 people, many of them seriously.
Parents of missing youths issued appeals for news of their loved ones as foreign embassies scrambled to work out if their nationals were among those caught up in one of the worst tragedies to befall modern Switzerland.
"I have been searching for my son for 30 hours. The wait is unbearable," Laetitia, the mother of missing 16-year-old Arthur, told BFM TV, saying she was desperate to know if he was alive or dead, and where.
"The first objective is to assign names to all the bodies," Crans-Montana's mayor Nicolas Feraud told a news conference on Thursday evening. This, he said, could take days.
Mathias Reynard, head of government of the canton of Valais, said experts were using dental and DNA samples for the task. "All this work needs to be done because the information is so terrible and sensitive that nothing can be told to the families unless we are 100 percent sure."
Italy and France are among the countries that have said some of their nationals are missing. Australia has also said one of its nationals was injured.
Authorities have warned that naming the victims or establishing a definitive death toll would take time because many of the bodies were badly burned.
Cause unclear
What caused the blaze was unclear. Swiss authorities said it appeared to be an accident rather than an attack.
Some accounts from survivors and footage broadcast on social media suggested that the ceiling of the bar's basement may have caught fire when sparkling candles got too close.
Residents of Crans-Montana, which has the distinction of being not only a popular draw for skiers but also golfers, were stunned by the inferno. Many knew victims and some said they were lucky not to have been there themselves.
Hundreds of people stood in silence near the scene as they came to pay their respects to the victims on Thursday night. Switzerland has also ordered the national flag to be flown at half-mast for five days as a sign of mourning.
Dozens of people left flowers or lit candles on a makeshift altar at the top of the road leading to the bar, which police had cordoned off.
"It could have been us," Emma, an 18-year-old from Geneva, said outside the cordoned-off bar.
Elisa Sousa, 17, said she was meant to be there but ended up spending the evening at a family gathering instead.
"And honestly, I'll need to thank my mother a hundred times for not letting me go," she said at the vigilfor the victims. "Because Godknows where I'd be now."
