Ten more children among victims of Swiss bar fire

Ten more children among victims of Swiss bar fire

Josephine McKenna

Sun, January 4, 2026 at 2:08 PM UTC

4 min read

Firefighters mourn at a makeshift memorial outside the Le Constellation bar — Firefighters mourn at a makeshift memorial outside Le Constellation bar - Umit Bektas/Reuters

Swiss police said they had &NoBreak;identified 16 more of the victims who died in a bar fire on New Year’s Eve that claimed at least 40 ‍lives in one of Switzerland’s worst tragedies.

Ten of the victims identified on Sunday were under the age of 18, police said, with the youngest person identified as being a 14-year-old Swiss girl.

Two others who had been previously identified were 15-year-old girls, also from Switzerland, meaning that a total of 12 children so far have been confirmed dead.

The latest victims included 10 Swiss, and three Italians, as well as Romanian, Turkish and French nationals, police said in a statement.

Police in the canton of Valais have ‍now identified a total of 24 of &NoBreak;the victims who died ‌in the blaze &NoBreak;in the ‍mountain resort of Crans-Montana in southern Switzerland. None of them have been named by police

“Identification operations carried out by the Valais Cantonal Police, the DVI [Disaster Victim Identification] and the Institute of Forensic Medicine have identified 16 new victims who died in the fire on January 1, 2026,” police said in a statement.

“Efforts are under way to identify all victims, both deceased and injured.”

People in the Le Constellation bar hold up Champagne bottles with lit sparklers — The fire is believed to have been started by sparklers in bottles which were held too close to the ceiling, according to an initial investigation

Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, confirmed on Saturday that three Italians had been confirmed dead.

The three victims have since been named as Achille Barosi, 16, from Milan, Giovanni Tamburi, 16, from Bologna, and 17-year-old golfer, Emanuele Galeppini, from Genoa, who had dual citizenship and lived in Dubai.

Desperate families continue searching for their loved ones and three other Italian teenagers remain missing. The father of Chiara Costanzo, a 16-year old from Milan, who had been on a trip with friends, told Italian media “my beloved Chiara is no more”, but the family had not received official confirmation of her death on Sunday.

Camilla Costanzo, elder sister of 16-year old Chiara, said her family had looked everywhere for her and were losing hope.

“We are all devastated,” Ms Costanzo, 29, told The Telegraph from Switzerland. “We have been getting updates about the number of unidentified. There are no more patients in the hospitals.”

Mourners pay their respects by laying flowers, candles and messages at a makeshift memorial near Le Constellation bar

From the left: Giovanni Tamburi, Emanuele Galeppini and Achille Barosi

Swiss officials said 119 people were injured in the fire that swept through the crowded bar within minutes. Many of the survivors have been transferred to specialist burns units in France, Germany and Italy.

Nine of the injured were flown to Milan’s Niguarda Hospital and several remain in a serious condition.

Bishop Monseigneur Jean-Marie Lovey holds Sunday mass at a chapel in Crans-Montana that has been dedicated to the victims of the fire — Bishop Monseigneur Jean-Marie Lovey holds Sunday mass dedicated to the victims of the fire at a chapel in Crans-Montana - Jean-Christophe Bott/Pool

People march in honour of the victims in the ski resort of Crans-Montana — A procession in honour of the victims takes place at the ski resort of Crans-Montana - Lisa Leutner/Reuters

Swiss authorities have opened an investigation into the managers of Le Constellation bar, French couple Jacques and Jessica Moretti, where the tragedy unfolded.

The French daily, Le Parisien, reported that Mr Moretti had a criminal record and had served a jail term in Savoie in 2005.

The newspaper claimed he was linked to prostitution cases dating back some 20 years, but had also been linked to a kidnapping and false imprisonment case some 30 years ago.

He was sentenced to two years in prison for fraud, according to the daily.

Mr Moretti and his wife are suspected of negligent homicide, negligent bodily harm and causing fire by negligence, police said in a statement on Saturday.

They said that the investigation was opened on Friday night, but did not give further details.

The likely cause of the fire during the New Year’s celebrations was sparklers on bottles being carried too close to the ceiling, a preliminary investigation has found.

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.

The process of identifying the dead and injured was still under way on Sunday, leading to an agonising wait for relatives desperate for news.

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