Italy repatriates bodies of five teenagers killed in Crans-Montana fire.
Schools across Italy on Wednesday will observe a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of the deadly New Year fire at a bar at the Crans-Montana ski resort in Switzerland.
Italian education minister Giuseppe Valditara said the initiative, which coincides with the reopening of schools after the Christmas holidays, is to “remember the young victims and express our closeness to their families”.
The fire, which left 40 people dead and 116 injured, is believed to have been caused by sparklers attached to champagne bottles as young people rang in the new year at Le Constellation bar.
Five of the six Italian victims of the tragedy, all teenagers, were repatriated on Monday on board an Italian air force plane that flew from Sion airport in Switzerland.
The aircraft arrived first at Linate airport in Milan where the coffins containing the bodies of four 16-year-old victims of the blaze were met by dignitaries led by senate president Ignazio La Russa.
The bodies of Achille Barosi and Chiara Costanzo will remain in Milan while the remains of Giovanni Tamburi will be transported to Bologna and Emanuele Galeppini to Genoa.
The remains of 16-year-old Riccardo Minghetti were then flown to Rome’s Ciampino airport where his coffin was met by Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani and sport minister Andrea Abodi.
The body of the sixth Italian victim, 15-year-old dual Swiss-Italian citizen Sofia Prosperi who lived in the southern Swiss canton of Ticino, was transferred to Lugano.
