A bus fire in western Switzerland killed at least six people and injured five others, with police saying they are treating the blaze as a possible deliberate act.
According to AFP via The Guardian, the fire broke out on 2026-03-10 on a bus in the main street of Kerzers, a small town in Fribourg canton about 20 kilometres west of Bern. The blaze began around 6.25pm local time and sent flames several metres high from the vehicle windows while black smoke rose into the sky.
Officials said passengers were seen escaping from the burning bus, panicked and injured. Fribourg cantonal police sergeant Frederic Papaux said the fire left at least six dead and five injured, three of them seriously. He also said police were treating the incident as a man-made event and even a deliberate act, though investigators had not yet established the exact cause.
A second police spokesperson, Christa Bielmann, said investigators were looking into reports that a person may have poured fuel on themselves. She said it was too early to say whether the incident was terror-related. That caution is important: the source describes the fire as potentially deliberate, but does not justify a firmer conclusion.
Fribourg police said a criminal investigation had been opened by prosecutors. The burnt-out bus was screened off behind white tarpaulins, and police, firefighters, ambulances and a helicopter were all present at the scene. The police statement said emergency services found the vehicle completely engulfed in flames and carried out rescue and extinguishing operations before setting up a security perimeter.
The bus was a PostBus, the yellow rural service that links remote communities with towns and also carries letters and parcels. PostBus said the news deeply affected staff and that a psychological support team would be available. The company is a familiar part of Swiss public life, which makes the scale of the casualties especially striking.
Swiss president Guy Parmelin said he was shocked and saddened by the deaths and expressed condolences to the families of those killed. He also thanked the emergency services. His reaction underlined how unusual the incident was in a country where major public transport fires are rare, even if the report noted a deadly bar fire in Crans-Montana earlier in the year.
For now, the main facts are grim and limited: a bus burned in central Kerzers, six people died, five were hurt and investigators are still trying to work out whether the fire was accidental, self-inflicted or intentionally set. The scene, as described by police and reported by AFP, points to a fast-moving disaster that turned an ordinary evening bus journey into a mass-casualty emergency.
The investigation will determine what caused the blaze, but the immediate human cost is already clear. In a small town on a main street in Fribourg canton, a public transport vehicle caught fire, rescue teams rushed in and families were left facing the worst possible outcome.
