The fatalities in the Swiss fire disaster have not undergone routine autopsies to determine how they died, a lawyer for the family of one of the victims said Friday.
"This is not normal, because in cases of violent deaths, it should be standard procedure. It should have been done," Jean-Luc Addor, a lawyer representing the family of a teenager killed in the tragedy, told AFP.
The boy's body was only given a post-mortem examination several days after the New Year inferno, and following several requests from the family.
The January 1 fire at Le Constellation, a bar in the Swiss ski resort town of Crans-Montana, in the southwestern Wallis canton, killed 40 people, mostly teenagers, injuring 116 others.
A source close to the investigation also told AFP that autopsies were being requested by families who want to know the exact cause of death of their loved ones.
As some funerals have already taken place, there is a risk that bodies that have not undergone a post-mortem examination would have to be exhumed.
Some of the victims "were burned, others were asphyxiated by toxic fumes", said Addor.
On January 4, Addor had asked the Wallis cantonal public prosecutor's office to order an autopsy on the body of the teenager whose family he represents.
With the burial scheduled for January 14, Addor again contacted the prosecutor's office on January 12, by which time the body had been released to the family.
The prosecutor's office finally ordered a post-mortem, forcing the family to return the body and postpone the funeral.
The teenager's body could finally be buried on Friday.
In Switzerland, autopsies are ordered by the public prosecutor's office.
Italy's ambassador to Bern said none of the six Italian fatalities had undergone a post-mortem in Switzerland, the Neue Zurcher Zeitung newspaper reported Friday.
In Italy, lawyer Alessandro Vaccaro, who represents the family of one of the victims, told AFP on Friday that "the Rome public prosecutor's office has requested that the bodies be made available so that autopsies can be performed".
Prosecutors in Wallis believe the fire started when champagne bottles with sparklers attached were raised too close to sound insulation foam on the ceiling in the bar's basement section.