Several hundred demonstrators marched in Switzerland on Saturday to demand “justice and truth” over a New Year’s blaze that killed 40 people and injured 155 others, most of them teens and young adults.
The protest was held in Lutry, a suburb of Lausanne, from which several of the victims who died in the January 1st blaze hailed.
“Tristan would have been 18 in four months’ time, but I’m also the mother of 155 other victims,” one woman who lost her son, Vincianne Stucky, told the crowd as she held up his photo.
“We will go to the end,” she said.
She was among the family members and friends of those killed. Some held white roses in their hands, others placards reading “You are not alone”.
The march started at the stadium of the local football club, which had seven of its players killed in the fire. It then paused before a church whose bells rang out for five minutes as many demonstrators laid flowers, before returning to the stadium.
The fire broke out in the basement of the bar Le Constellation in Crans-Montana, which was packed as revellers celebrated the New Year.
Prosecutors believe that sparklers attached to champagne bottles ignited the acoustic insulation foam on the ceiling.
Smartphone videos showed the young people in the bar continuing to party, unaware of the danger they were in until it was too late. Witnesses spoke of panic when the crowd rushed for the sole exit.
Most of those impacted by the fire were Swiss, but a total of 19 nationalities were among the dead and injured.
Why?
A criminal investigation has reportedly been launched against a former official who was in charge of safety checks at the bar, making him the third person charged after the bar’s owners, a French couple.
Local authorities revealed that no safety check had been carried out at the bar since 2019.
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Another bereaved mother in the demonstration, Laetitia Brodard-Sitre, told AFP: “I want to know why our children, including my son, were not able to get out. Why?”
“When you go through a tragedy in which 40 people – 40 children, 40 teens – have gone and another 100 are in rehabilitation or intensive care, there are obviously questions to be asked,” said Alexandre Fleury, father of a youngster who remained hospitalised.
He demanded an investigation that is “clear and objective, with competent people” handling it.
The organisers of the march, Allegra Petruzzi, told AFP: “All my classmates were in that fire, and most of them died, but some are still in hospital. It’s for them we have to fight.”