Families identify loved ones killed in Swiss tunnel coach crash

Weeping family members were driven from a hotel in the southern Swiss town of Sion to the nearby morgue, where some of the bodies killed in Tuesday’s crash were being kept.

Police spokesman Jean-Marie Bornet said: “Where possible, the bodies will be shown to the families. In some cases this is not possible because the bodies are too badly injured.”

After the grim ordeal, relatives visited the site of the crash inside the Tunnel de Geronde near the Swiss town of Sierre. Family members carried flowers to the site where 21 Belgians and seven Dutch were killed.

Preparations were also being made to fly some of the families of the victims from Geneva back home to Belgium on Thursday night.

The Belgian tourist bus carrying 52 people hit a wall Tuesday night less than an hour after heading home from a ski vacation in the Swiss Alps. Twenty-four other children were hurt, some seriously.

Police said authorities were working to release the bodies of all the victims as soon as possible. Some still had to be identified.

In Belgium, plans were being made to begin repatriating the bodies with military planes, and authorities announced that today will be a national day of mourning.

In Sion, Dr Michael Callens said the 14 children in the city’s hospital were “doing well” and should be able to be repatriated to Belgium soon but added: “We don’t know if it’s going to be tomorrow or the day after.”

He said it would take longer for four other children who were more badly injured, and are being treated at hospitals in Lausanne and Bern, to be returned home.

Investigations are under way to determine how a modern bus with two rested drivers and a tunnel considered safe could result in one of the deadliest highway crashes in Swiss history.

Olivier Elsig, prosecutor for the Swiss state of Valais, told a news conference on Wednesday that officials are looking at three possible causes – a technical problem with the bus, a health problem with the driver or human error.

Swiss and Belgian media reported yesterday that survivors of the crash claimed the driver had reached to change a DVD on the onboard entertainment system shortly before the crash. It was unclear whether that could have contributed to the crash, and neither police nor prosecutors could immediately be reached for comment on the report.

A Catholic chapel in Sierre was opened to allow the public to pay their respects to the victims, and a memorial mass was planned for last night at the town’s Holy Cross church.

The Vatican conveyed its condolences to Belgium’s Archbishop Andre-Mutien Leonard.

Pope Benedict XVI was praying for the mourning families and had conferred a special blessing on all affected, the Vatican statement said, and he wished to express his “profound sympathy” to the injured and their families, and his sense of “closeness” to the rescue workers.

In Sierre, locals expressed their shock at the tragedy.

“I am very sad, because I have children and today I awoke with them and I think very strongly about these people because it’s really very hard,” said Genevieve Romailler, a pharmacist.

“It’s very hard to come to terms with this. Even if we didn’t know these young victims, we are really moved by this tragedy,” said barman Franck Bartolucci.