Six people were killed after a disturbed man set himself on fire on a bus in Kerzers, Switzerland, sparking a deadly blaze, prosecutors said

FRIBOURG: An inferno on a Swiss bus that killed six people was seemingly started by a “disturbed” man on board who set himself alight, the investigating prosecutor said Wednesday.

The blaze happened on Tuesday evening in the small town of Kerzers, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) west of the capital Bern.

Videos shared on social media showed flames several metres high bursting out of the windows, and black smoke rising into the sky.

The suspect “got on with his two bags and at some point stood up, doused himself with petrol, and set himself on fire”, Fribourg canton’s public prosecutor Raphael Bourquin told reporters.

The 65-year-old Swiss man is among the deceased.

The man is someone “who seems to be quite marginalised, someone potentially psychologically disturbed, who is known to the medical community and who has apparently had some problems recently”, Bourquin said.

“There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that this could be a terrorist act,” he added.

The man, who lived in the neighbouring Bern canton, had recently been in hospital with a physical ailment but had been missing for a day or two, with his family notifying the police of his disappearance, said the prosecutor.

Victims identified

All those killed have now been formally identified, police said late Wednesday.

They include the bus driver, who was a 63-year-old man of Portuguese origin.

The other four people killed were all Swiss citizens living in the region. They were two women aged 25 and 39, and two men aged 16 and 29.

Besides those killed, five people were injured in the fire. Three people were taken to hospital; two of those are in a serious condition and the other has since returned home.

Two further people were treated at the scene by emergency responders.

The five injured were two Swiss men aged 34 and 61; two Swiss women aged 27 and 56; and a 32-year-old man from Kosovo. They all live locally.

“Two people, the 56-year-old woman and the 34-year-old man, remain hospitalised,” police said.

Fribourg police chief Philippe Allain said detectives were trying to pinpoint how many people were on the local bus at the time.

Witnesses reported some people escaping from the bus who were “engulfed in flames”, he told AFP.

“The speed at which the fire spread was quite astonishing,” he said.

That the suspect set himself on fire is the “leading hypothesis, based on witness statements, initial video analysis, and the sequence of events”, he said.

“We’re now going to work on profiling the suspected perpetrator and determine his motives by analysing what we can find at his home and on his mobile phone.”

‘Extremely sad times’

Before dawn on Wednesday, the charred shell of the bus had been removed, leaving a few traces of melted tar on the road and a faint smell of burning in the air.

The bushes and street signs beside the road were scorched.

During the day, several people came to lay bouquets of flowers at the scene of the tragedy.

It is the second major multiple-casualty fire in Switzerland in less than three months.

In the early hours of January 1, a bar in the ski resort of Crans-Montana caught fire as people celebrated the New Year. A total of 41 people died, with another 115 injured.

Swiss President Guy Parmelin visited the scene in Kerzers on Wednesday and laid flowers during a ceremony.

Around 300 people were present, including emergency service workers called into action the night before.

“Once again, we are going through extremely sad times,” Parmelin said.

“It is in moments like these that the words solidarity and humanity take on their full meaning.”

 The Sun Malaysia