Public prosecutors in Switzerland have opened a criminal investigation into the managers of the bar in Switzerland’s Crans Montana, where at least 40 people died in a fire.

Two days after the fire, in which 119 people suffered injuries, including severe burns, officials were still ⁠trying to identify many of those killed. Attention has also turned to how one of Switzerland’s worst tragedies could have occurred.

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The bar’s two managers are suspected ​of offences including homicide by negligence, causing bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence, prosecutors in Valais, the canton ‍that is home to the bar in the upscale ski resort of Crans-Montana, said in a statement on Saturday. They did not name the pair.

“It was an enormous tragedy. We’re all so sorry that this had to happen,” Beat Jans, the Swiss justice minister, told reporters, standing in front of the cordoned-off bar, Le Constellation.

He said temperatures during the ‍blaze must have reached “500, ⁠600 degrees [Celsius, or 900-1,100 Fahrenheit]”.

The managers of the resort were reported by multiple outlets to be a man and a woman from France. The man is believed to have been away while the woman was inside the bar and suffered burns to her arm, according to the French broadcaster BFM TV.

Switzerland’s Tribune de Geneve reported that the man told the newspaper the bar had been checked “three times in 10 years” and that “everything was done within the standards”.

The couple reportedly have two other establishments, one in Crans-Montana and another in nearby Lens.

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The two have already been questioned along with many others involved in the tragedy, according to police, who said they continue to gather information on what transpired at the New Year’s event and what work had been carried out in the bar in the past.

Beatrice Pilloud, the chief prosecutor of Valais, said indications were that the fire had started because sparklers ‌got too close to the ceiling.

“From there, a rapid, very rapid and widespread blaze ensued,” she said on Friday afternoon.

Many of the victims, including the dead and some of the missing, are teenagers, with survivors transferred to local hospitals and those in neighbouring countries for treatment.

The painful process of identifying the dead was ongoing on Saturday, with the Italian ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, saying it could be finished by Sunday afternoon.

An Italian 16-year-old was one of the first confirmed to have been killed, as were several Swiss nationals. Their bodies have been returned to their families, police said.

Swiss President Guy Parmelin called it “one of the worst tragedies” ever experienced by the country.

The top priority at the moment is providing the best possible medical care and identifying the deceased, Jans said.

The chief prosecutor, Beatrice Pilloud, had earlier said that the investigation would look at how many people were allowed into the bar, accessible emergency exits, and materials used during renovations.