Fribourg's Attorney General provides information "Perpetrator was already in the Postbus before the Kerzers stop"
Six people died in the Postbus fire in Kerzers FR. Fribourg's Attorney General Raphaël Bourquin talks to blue News about the initial findings of the investigation.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- A suspected mentally unstable Swiss man in his 60s allegedly poured petrol over himself in a Postbus in Kerzers FR and set it alight.
- Six people died in the fire and five others were injured.
- According to the Attorney General of Fribourg, investigators are currently trying to secure images from surveillance cameras.
A suspected mentally unstable Swiss man in his 60s is believed to have started the devastating fire in a Postbus in Kerzers FR on Tuesday evening. Six people died in the fire on the bus and five others were injured, some of them seriously.
According to the authorities, the man acted deliberately, but they have ruled out an act of terrorism. The perpetrator is also believed to have set himself alight on the bus and is among the fatalities. His formal identification has not yet been completed. The initial results of the investigation point to an act without an ideological background.
In an interview with blue News, Fribourg's Attorney General Raphaël Bourquin outlines an initial profile of the suspect, but urges caution: "The profile corresponds to someone who is around 60 years old. He seems to be a rather marginalized person, possibly mentally ill and already medically known. He is said to have had some problems recently."
Bourquin emphasizes, however, that the information on the alleged perpetrator still needs to be confirmed. "We need to have a formal identification before we can make further inquiries regarding possible medical or other information," says the public prosecutor.
Perpetrator was already on the bus before Kerzers
According to initial interrogations, the man had already been on the Postbus before the stop in Kerzers. Bourquin: "He got on the bus with two bags and at some point stood up in the bus, poured petrol over himself and set himself alight."
Current findings suggest that the crime happened "fairly quickly", although Bourquin says that the various witness statements must first be compared with each other "to see if we can create a common version of events".
Investigators are currently trying to find out whether camera footage can shed light on the course of the accident. When asked about possible surveillance images, the public prosecutor remains cautious: "I can't tell you that. Theoretically, yes. But did the cameras actually work? We don't have all the information at the moment."
