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According to the Valais police, those identified include 10 Swiss people, two Italians, one person with Italian-Emirati citizenship, one Romanian, one person from France, and one from Turkiye.

Swiss police say they have identified 16 more of those who died during a fatal fire in a bar on New Year’s Eve that killed 40 people, in one of the country’s deadliest disasters.

According to the Valais police on Sunday, those identified include 10 Swiss nationals, two Italians, one person with Italian-Emirati citizenship, one Romanian, one person from France, and one from Turkiye.

So far, 24 people have been identified among those who died in the blaze at the Le Constellation bar in the mountain resort of Crans-Montana, southern Switzerland.

The wait for families for news of their loved ones has been anguished.

Of those identified, the youngest person to have been killed is a 14-year-old Swiss girl, followed by two 15-year-old Swiss girls.

According to the police, 10 other bodies identified on Sunday were teenagers aged between 16 and 18. Two Swiss men, aged 20 and 31, and a French national, aged 39, were also identified.

Officials are continuing efforts to identify the remaining casualties from the fire that injured about 119 people, some of whom suffered severe burns and were transferred to burn units across Europe.

For the local community, the aftermath of the tragic fire is causing acute distress.

Damiano Vizioli, a 24-year-old living in neighbouring Sion, was in Le Constellation on New Year’s Eve but had gone outside to smoke a cigarette when the bar was suddenly engulfed in flames.

“I’m not sleeping well because I can hear the people screaming,” Vizioli told the Reuters news agency. He went back to the bar, desperate for news of a friend working there whom he has not heard from since.

Eric Schmid, a 63-year-old local businessman, also told Reuters that the disaster will be felt “quite deep, and I think it’ll take time to heal”.

“We [the Swiss] are mountain people. We will survive, of course, but that’s not the most important thing,” he said.

“It’s more about the kids and all these people who have been affected. But the messages and signs of solidarity are super important,” he added.

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

Police have identified the first four bodies of people who were killed in a fire at a bar in a Swiss ski resort on New Year’s Eve.

The bodies of two Swiss women aged 21 and 16, and two Swiss men aged 18 and 16 have been returned to their families, police said.

“Extensive” work from officers and the Institute of Forensic Medicine made the identifications possible, Valais cantonal police said in a statement, and work to identify the remaining victims continues.

The blaze at Le Constellation in Crans-Montana killed 40 people and injured 119 others, officials have said. With many of the injured identified, families now face an agonising wait for information about those still missing.

The likely cause of the fire was sparklers on champagne bottles being carried too close to the ceiling, a preliminary investigation of how the fire began found.

Switzerland’s President Guy Parmelin called it “one of the worst tragedies” experienced by the country.

Further details about the identified victims, including names, have not been released.

A teenage golfer from Italy was the first death to be named, though Swiss and Italian officials have so far declined to confirm his death.

A helpline has been set up for concerned families: +41 848 112 117

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