Five members of a family, of French nationality, fell from the balcony of their apartment this morning in the center of Montreux, Switzerland. Four people died while the fifth, one of two children, was seriously injured, according to a statement published in the early afternoon by the cantonal police.
The five people would likely have thrown themselves off the balcony, writes the Swiss news agency Keystone-ATS. The police had been informed around 7.00 this morning that five people had fallen from a balcony on the seventh floor of a building in the center of Montreux, the statement said.
At present and pending “a formal identification still in progress”, it seems that the five people are members of the same family of French citizens: the 40-year-old father, the 41-year-old wife, the latter’s twin sister, and The couple’s 8-year-old daughter are the four people who died. The 15-year-old son survived and is hospitalized in serious condition, the statement added.
According to the police, two gendarmes had presented themselves shortly before the drama at the door of the apartment where the family lived to carry out a warrant concerning the father and linked to the home schooling of one of the children. After identifying, the gendarmes no longer heard any noise and left. In the meantime, the call from a witness had reached the central who had reported the serious episode. The presence of other people inside the apartment was excluded, the police said.