A French family of four, including an eight-year-old girl, her parents and an aunt, have died and her teenage brother was seriously injured after they jumped out of their apartment building in the Swiss resort of Montreux on Lake Geneva, police said.
The family was found at the foot of a seven-story house in Montreux on Thursday and is believed to have jumped minutes after police tried to enforce an arrest warrant in connection with the child’s homeschooling.
The four victims, identified as a 40-year-old man, his 41-year-old wife, her twin sister and the couple’s eight-year-old daughter, died at the scene, police said. The couple’s 15-year-old son was seriously injured and was hospitalized.
Alexander Bisenz, a police spokesman, told the 20 Minutes newspaper that five people had jumped out of their apartment near the town’s lakeside casino.
A witness at the scene said they saw people lying on the ground without shoes before reporting to police.
The four victims, identified as a 40-year-old man, his 41-year-old wife, her twin sister and the couple’s eight-year-old daughter, died at the scene, police said. The couple’s 15-year-old son was seriously injured and hospitalized.
Four victims were found dead at the foot of a seven-story building in Montreux.
Police take samples from a balcony after five people jumped out of their apartment in Montreux, Switzerland on Thursday.
Police said the incident came after two officers arrived at a building across from the famous Montreux Casino to issue a warrant for the father in connection with one of the children’s homeschooling on Thursday.
The officers knocked on the door and heard a voice asking who they were. But when they answered, the apartment became quiet.
Unable to contact the police, they left, but “in the meantime, a witness called the police and said that people had fallen from the balcony of the apartment,” the police said.
“We don’t yet know if they fell or if this drama was caused by other circumstances,” police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel said in an interview with the public television channel RTS.
According to him, an investigation has been launched to “establish the exact circumstances and causes of this tragedy,” but the police have already concluded that the incident took place “behind closed doors” and that no one was in the apartment at that time.
Earlier Thursday morning, Vaud police tweeted: “Five people were found at the foot of the building. One of the five victims was hospitalized and is in serious condition. Four others are dead.
Currently, forensic teams are taking samples from the balcony of a seventh-floor apartment, and neighbors next door describe the quiet family living there.
Police officers speak near the scene after five people jumped out of an apartment in Montreux, Switzerland on Thursday.
“We didn’t hear anything from their house, my father never said hello in the hallway and ordered a lot of parcels almost every day,” neighbor Claude Rouyet told the Swiss newspaper Le Temps.
Ruye said that in the past few days, a strong smell of incense had come from the family’s apartment, while other neighbors claim the family was part of a sect.
Another resident, who lives on the ground floor of an apartment building, said he heard a “thud” around 7 a.m. Thursday.
A neighbor who wished to remain anonymous said he went outside to investigate and saw five bodies.
“I thought it was a bad movie, I couldn’t fix the image for more than a few seconds,” he said.
Police officers take notes outside tents after five people jumped out of their apartment in Montreux.
A black hearse arrives at the scene after a French family jumped out of their apartment on Thursday.
Police put up protection at the scene after five people jumped out of an apartment in Montreux on Thursday.
The five people “clearly would have thrown themselves into the void from the apartment,” Bisenz told Keystone-ATS news agency, adding that police had been alerted to the incident by passers-by.
Bizenz said the investigation is ongoing and five people were found around 7 a.m. Thursday near a building near the city’s famous Barriere casino. He declined to give further details.
About 30 police officers are on the scene, and white forensics tents have been set up in front of the apartment building.
Montreux, a bucolic lakeside town, is best known as a popular tourist destination and in particular for its annual jazz festival.
Bizenz declined to specify whether the victims were Swiss citizens or foreigners.