LOOK: 'We did not expect this,' says Swiss resident after bus passenger sets himself on fire

The Swiss town where six people were killed in a bus fire was in a state of grief on Wednesday (March 11) a local resident said.

"Apparently, someone set himself on fire with petrol", 37-year-old Vanessa Liuzzi said, adding the atmosphere in the town of Kerzers in the country's west was tense and everyone was talking about the incident.

Police said the bus became engulfed in flames on Tuesday (March 10) evening on a road in Kerzers, a town of about 5,000 inhabitants in the western canton of Fribourg, about 20 km (12 miles) from the Swiss capital Bern.

A local police spokesperson told a press conference investigators were looking into reports that a person had poured fuel on themselves but it was too early to say whether the incident was terrorism-related.

-Production: Dave Graham, Lewis Macdonald, Lucien Libert/Reuters

Emergency personnel work at the site of a deadly bus fire in Kerzers, Switzerland, March 10, 2026. State of Freiburg/Handout via Reuters

People set up tents for flowers, at the site of a deadly bus fire, in Kerzers, Switzerland, March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Romina Amato