The investigation points to a “deliberate act”

At least six people have died and five others have been injured after a bus caught fire and was completely burned. It is a postal bus that was circulating through the town of Chiètres, in the Swiss canton of Fribourg, according to local police in a brief press conference.

At midnight, emergency personnel remained at the scene and indicated that there could be more fatalities. One of the injured is a person who came to help the injured: three of them are hospitalized in critical condition while the rest were treated at the scene of the accident.

Although the causes are still unknown, law enforcement officials indicate that there are indications that it was a “deliberate act” by a person who could be inside the bus. The Freiburg Public Prosecutor’s Office has taken over the investigation.

Images posted on social media by neighbors show how the flames completely engulfed the public transport vehicle.

Swiss postal buses – recognized by their yellow color, their punctuality and their three-tone horn (used to warn on sharp curves) – are an iconic transport service in this country, connecting rural and mountain towns, often remote, and were initially created to deliver mail, hence their name.

The Swiss president, Guy Parmelincommented on the tragedy in Kerzers: “I am shocked and saddened that, once again, people have lost their lives in Switzerland in a serious fire,” he wrote in X