At least six dead in Switzerland bus fire

At least six people have been killed and others injured after a bus caught fire in a town in western Switzerland, according to police.

The incident took place at around 18:25 local time (19:25 GMT) on Tuesday in the centre of Kerzers – known in French as Chiètres – in Fribourg canton, about 20km (12 miles) from the capital, Bern.

At least three people were taken to hospital, police said, and there were reports that a rescuer was also hurt.

The cause of the fire is not yet known but local police said the fire was believed to have been started deliberately.

There have been reports that a person doused themselves in gasoline but the authorities said they could not immediately confirm this.

While the act is thought to be intentional, there is no evidence it was terror related, a spokesperson for Fribourg police told Swiss national broadcaster RTS on Wednesday.

Romain Collaud, a local politician, also confirmed to RTS that “we have no indication that suggests we might be dealing with a terrorist attack”.

Video posted by local media shows a bus in flames, and a local resident described seeing a thick column of smoke.

The bus involved had reportedly travelled from the Düdingen municipality, 17km south of Kerzers.

Stefan Regli, the head of the bus company Postauto, described the incident as a terrible tragedy and expressed his condolences in a statement.

In a post on X, Swiss President Guy Parmelin said that it “shocks and saddens me that people have lost their lives in a serious fire in Switzerland”.

Forty-one people were killed in a deadly fire that broke out in a Swiss ski resort on New Year’s Eve.

Credit: bbc.com

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