Police are investigating whether a bus fire in a town west of the Swiss capital that killed at least six people was started deliberately.<\/p>\n
Police spokesperson Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Papaux of Fribourg canton, or region, said an unspecified \u201cvoluntary act\u201d could have caused the fire Tuesday evening in the town of Kerzers, about 15 miles west of Bern.<\/p>\n
Five people were also injured in the fire, which for locals echoed a\u00a0New Year\u2019s Eve fire<\/a>\u00a0in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana that killed 41 young people<\/a>.<\/p>\n A bus fire in Kerzers, Switzerland, killed at least six people Tuesday evening. KANTONSPOLIZEI FREIBURG HANDOUT\/EPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n Christa Bielmann, representing the Fribourg police, told Swiss broadcaster SRF: \u201cThere is information circulating that a person poured flammable liquid over themselves on the bus and that this caused the fire. But this is part of the ongoing investigation and is being clarified.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt shocks and saddens me that once again people have lost their lives in a serious fire in Switzerland,\u201d Swiss President Guy Parmelin wrote on X on Tuesday night. \u201cThe circumstances are being investigated. I offer my condolences to the families of those who died in Kerzers. And my thoughts are with the injured and the rescue workers.\u201d<\/p>\n There were no indications that this was a terror attack, Martial Pugin, head of communications for the Fribourg cantonal police, told broadcaster RTS on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n The regional transport bus is operated by PostBus, which is affiliated with the national postal service. Images from the scene on Swiss media showed flames tearing through the bus.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are deeply moved by this tragic news. Our thoughts are with the victims, the injured, and all their families,\u201d PostBus said in a statement on its website.<\/p>\n Police suspect the fire, which injured 5 others, was started deliberately. ALESSANDRO DELLA VALLE\/EPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n \u201cAfter rushing to the scene, rescue teams noted that the vehicle was totally engulfed in flames,\u201d the regional government said in a statement.<\/p>\n Ambulance and helicopter teams ferried three people with severe injuries to hospitals, while two others were treated on site, police said.<\/p>\n The identification of the victims could take several days. Getty Images<\/p>\n Police don\u2019t currently believe the attack was terror-related. Getty Images<\/p>\n Papaux said at least six people were killed. <\/p>\n Police said the identification of the victims could take several days.<\/p>\n The burned-out vehicle was removed during the night and traffic returned to normal as of Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police are investigating whether a bus fire in a town west of the Swiss capital that killed at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18043,308,8252,17,1046],"class_list":{"0":"post-29694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-buses","9":"tag-deaths","10":"tag-fires","11":"tag-switzerland","12":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116209641327924741","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}