Six people have died in a bus blaze in Switzerland, which was allegedly started by a man inside the vehicle, according to police and local media reports.
Police said the blaze took place in Kerzers, in the canton of Fribourg, at around 6.25pm on Tuesday. The victims have not yet been identified.
Five people have been injured, including an emergency responder, and three of them have been taken to hospital.
It is unclear how serious their injuries are and whether any other people have been hurt in the blaze, as it is not known how many people were inside the bus when the fire started, officials said.
A man inside the bus “poured out petrol and set himself alight”, a witness claims in a video shared with Swiss newspaper Blick. This account was corroborated by other witnesses, according to the report.
Firefighters and police officers install barriers to secure the area where a postal bus caught fire in Kerzers. Pic: AP
The fire could have been an “arsonistic act”, the spokeswoman of Fribourg’s police said at a news conference, adding the force had “information that a person is the cause of the fire”.
She said that while police have received information that someone had poured petrol over themselves, she could not confirm this.
Another spokesperson said the fire could have been “deliberately” started and added police would not reveal whether the alleged perpetrator is among the injured or dead.
Barriers surrounding the charred remains of a fatal bus fire in Kerzers, Switzerland. Pic: AP
Police have not ruled out a terror act and said an investigation is under way.
Officers are set to remain at the scene, where the burnt-out bus is shielded from view by barriers. Residents have been asked to avoid the area.
Schweizerische Post, the company operating the bus, said in a statement to Swiss paper Der Bund: “Our thoughts are with the injured and the families of the deceased.”
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