Swiss bus fire likely deliberate but terrorism ruled out for now: Police

A criminal investigation had been opened by public prosecutors. Read more at straitstimes.com.

GENEVA - A bus fire that killed at least six people in western Switzerland was likely ignited deliberately but probably not as an act of terror, police said on March 11.

The fire broke out on the bus in the main street of the small town of Kerzers, around 20km west of the Alpine nation’s capital Bern, at about 6.25pm on March 10.

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

In an interview on March 11 with Swiss national broadcaster RTS, Fribourg Canton police communications chief Martial Pugin confirmed that while “an intentional act is the most likely scenario”, “at present there is no evidence” it was a terror attack.

Fribourg cantonal police spokesman Frederic Papaux had told AFP on the evening of March 10 that the fire “left at least six dead and five injured, three of them seriously”.

He, too, said that the evidence pointed to the fire being deliberate, but would not be drawn on speculation that the tragedy was a suicide.