Police investigating a bus fire that killed at least six people in western Switzerland have said they suspect a deliberate act by a person on board but have for now ruled out a terrorist motive.
The vehicle, operated by a service to transport passengers and mail, went up in flames on Tuesday evening in Kerzers, a town of about 5,000 people 12.4 miles (20km) west of the capital, Berne, in the canton of Fribourg.
Frédéric Papaux, a spokesperson for Fribourg police, said investigators were following up on reports that someone on the bus had doused themselves in fuel and set themselves on fire.
“At this stage, we have evidence suggesting a deliberate act by a person who was inside the bus,” said Papaux.
Public prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation.
Beyond the six fatalities, five people were injured in the blaze, Papaux said. Police were unable to say how many passengers were on the bus at the time.
Fribourg police’s communications chief, Martial Pugin, said two of the victims were in a serious condition while a third was able to return home overnight.
Authorities said it would take several days to identify the six people who died. It was not immediately clear if the suspected arsonist was among the fatalities.
Pugin told the national broadcaster RTS that while an intentional act was the most likely scenario, “at present” there was no evidence of a terrorist attack.
The Swiss president, Guy Parmelin, whose country was struck by a devastating fire on New Year’s Eve in the ski resort of Crans-Montana, expressed his condolences to the victims’ families.
“I am shocked and saddened that people in Switzerland have once again lost their lives in a serious fire,” he said.
In the early hours of 1 January, a basement bar in Crans-Montana was engulfed in flames as people celebrated the new year. Forty-one people died, with another 115 injured.
Images from Kerzers posted on social media showed tall flames shooting from the windows of the vehicle and a plume of black smoke rising into the sky. Emergency services staff worked late into the night at the scene.
Video after the fire was extinguished showed the charred remains of the yellow vehicle. The bus was removed from the road during the night.
The media outlet Blick quoted a witness as saying that a man had poured petrol out on the bus and set himself on fire.
“Everything happened so quickly – and then within moments everything was in flames,” another person told Blick. “The heat even caused the tyres to explode and fly up to 200 metres away.”
Witnesses told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper that the flames spread quickly, with injured people screaming and writhing in pain on the street. “It was awful,” said Hans-Jürg Stocker, who lives near the scene.
Two women who work in a building close to the site of the fire reported hearing a loud bang and people throwing objects at the bus. “Apparently they wanted to break open the windows to free people,” one of the women told the Tages-Anzeiger.
Nirosan Vickneswaran, 37, was waiting anxiously for news of his cousin who was on the bus when it went up in flames.
“We don’t know if he’s injured or worse,” he told Reuters.
Police had taken DNA samples from the family and indicated it might take up to 48 hours to find out, he said.
Mina Gendre was about to close up the shop she works in when she saw the bus, which had stopped unexpectedly across the road, had a small fire inside.
Within half a minute or so, it burst into flames, she said.
“It was so shocking,” said Gendre. “I saw someone come running out of the bus on fire.”
With smoke billowing out of the bus, Gendre shut the door of the shop to protect it as bystanders helped put out the fire on the person with a jacket, she said.
Romain Collaud, a member of the Fribourg state council, said the bus involved was not an electric vehicle. Although the cause of the accident has yet to be determined, the theory that an electric motor caught fire can be ruled out. “It was a bus with a combustion engine,” he told broadcaster RTS.
The vehicle involved was a PostBus, a fixture of rural life in the Alpine country.
The distinctive yellow buses serve people in more remote areas, connecting them with towns, and carrying letters and parcels. They are used by about half a million people every day, including schoolchildren.
Stefan Regli, the chief executive of PostBus, said in a statement: “It is a terrible tragedy that occurred yesterday. Like me, all the employees of PostBus and Swiss Post are shocked.”
Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report
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