Identifying bodies in Swiss fire a forensic 'nightmare', doctor says

Forensic teams face a difficult task identifying victims of the deadly New Year’s Eve bar fire in Switzerland, with severe burns destroying most identifying features. Authorities plan to rely on DNA and 3D imaging, a process that could take up to a week.

Reuters

2 January 2026 at 14:58:33

A person pays tribute next to the candles placed for the victims outside the "Le Constellation" bar, after a fire and explosion during a New Year's Eve party where several people died and others were injured, according to Swiss police, in the upscale ski resort of Crans-Montana in southwestern Switzerland, January 2, 2026.

Stephanie Lecocq/Reuters

The identification of the bodies of victims who perished in a bar fire in Switzerland is a "nightmare" for forensic officials, a doctor told Reuters on Friday (January 2).

Investigators set about the painful task on Friday of identifying the burned bodies from a blaze that engulfed a crowded bar and killed around 40 people at a New Year's Eve party in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana.

So severe were the burns suffered by the mostly young crowd of revellers in the Le Constellation bar that Swiss officials said it could take days before they name all those killed in the fire that also injured well over 100 people.

"This is a place that welcomes the public and a public that is not registered, so their identities were not taken at the entrance, there is no list, there are no elements," Bernard Marc, the head of forensic medicine at a French forensic unit in Compiegne said.

"Needless to say that their papers or any element of this type were burned in the fire or were destroyed by the water... There were many responders, who fortunately responded for rescue, but who modified this scene. So this is a bit of a nightmare,” he added.

Marc said that with many identifying features, such as the hands for fingerprints, the face and skin colour, destroyed by the blaze, authorities will most likely have to count on DNA comparisons and 3D imagery to try to identify the victims.

He said the identification process could take one week.

Production: Ardee Napolitano, Nicolas Coupe/Reuters

The identification of the bodies of victims who perished in a bar fire in Switzerland is a "nightmare" for forensic officials, a doctor told Reuters on Friday (January 2).