It will take days to identify the victims of the fire in Switzerland; the bodies are badly burned

On Friday, January 2, investigators began the process of identifying those killed in a fire at a crowded bar at a ski resort in Switzerland, the agency reported Reuters.

Currently, there are about 40 known victims and 115 injured. The burns, sustained mostly by young patrons of the Le Constellation bar, were so severe that, according to Swiss authorities, it may take several days before the names of all those killed in the fire are identified.

Parents of the missing anxiously asked for information about their loved ones, while foreign embassies tried to find out if their citizens were among the victims of one of the worst tragedies to befall modern Switzerland.

"The first task is to identify all the bodies that have been found," Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas Feraud said at a briefing on Thursday evening. According to him, this could take several days.

Mathias Reynard, head of the government of the canton of Valais, said that experts are using tooth and DNA samples for this work.

"All this work has to be done, because the information is so awful and delicate that nothing can be communicated to the families until we are 100% sure," he added.

The cause of the fire is currently unclear. Swiss authorities have said it was likely an accident rather than an attack. Some survivor testimonies and videos circulated on social media suggest that the bar's basement ceiling may have caught fire when sparklers were brought too close.

• On New Year's Eve, ski resort An explosion occurred in a bar in Crans-Montana. Police reported dozens of casualties. According to the prosecutor's office, the explosion was caused by a fire.