By Emma Farge
LUTRY, Switzerland, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Teammates of a 16-year-old soccer player Arthur Brodard were among the mourners on Thursday as Switzerland held funerals for some of the victims of the New Year bar fire in Crans-Montana that killed 40 people, most of them teenagers.
Brodard is one of seven victims from Lutry Football Club, the club said. Five others are fighting for their lives in hospitals.
Under light snowfall, dozens of people including fellow players walked through the cobbled streets of Lutry to the church holding black umbrellas before filling every pew, with more standing or sitting in the aisles.
A large banner showed a drawing of Brodard in the arms of his younger brother Benjamin.
His mother Laetitia Brodard-Sitre described him as “responsible and kind” and carried a white teddy bear and a single red rose – the colours of his team.
CLUB PAYS TRIBUTE
At the start of the ceremony, a song called “One day in the wrong place” by France’s Calogero played on the speakers with the lyrics: “And it’s because they were there/One day in the wrong place”.
Brodard had reserved a table with friends at Le Constellation bar the night of the fire, his mother told Reuters last week.
Just over an hour before the blaze, he texted her “Happy New Year mum. I love you” and shared a disappearing video of them partying together, she said.
His photo, with tousled brown hair carrying a Yorkshire Terrier “Lili”, appeared in newspapers around the world as she sought information on his whereabouts from morgues and hospitals.
He was identified as one of the victims on January 3.
“Loved by all for his kindness, his dedication and commitment, he will be part of the Lutry Football Club family forever,” the club in the pretty lakeside village, east of the city of Lausanne, said in Swiss newspaper 24 heures.
Swiss authorities said this week that the bar in the upscale ski resort of Crans-Montana had not had a mandatory inspection since 2019 and questions remain about safety standards.
Swiss prosecutors are investigating a couple who ran the bar and a group of victims’ families have filed legal complaints. The couple’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Lutry ceremony was one of two back-to-back services for teenage fire victims at the same church.
Another joint funeral for two 14- and 15-year-old sisters happened in Lausanne earlier on Thursday. Local schools have mobilised mental health counsellors to support students and teachers, the Vaud canton said.
Twenty-one of the dead were from Switzerland, seven from France, six from Italy, and there was a Swiss-French dual national and a French-British-Israeli national. The remaining four were Romanian, Turkish, Belgian and Portuguese.
(Reporting by Emma Farge;Editing by Alison Williams)
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