Swiss group lights 11,288 candles for COVID-19 victims

BERN (Reuters) - More than 11,000 candles - one for each Swiss victim of the coronavirus pandemic - lit up the December darkness outside the Swiss parliament in Bern on Tuesday.

"We want to create a space to remember and mourn the victims," Simon Gehren of the "Corona-Mahnwache" (corona vigil) movement told Reuters.

Around 40 volunteers helped light the candles arranged geometrically on the square that is Switzerland's political centre. The group organised a similar event last year.

Gehren said the vigil was also an appeal to the government to take firmer action to contain soaring infection numbers.

Switzerland has seen a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases over the last weeks. It tightened measures last week, but has been less strict than neighbouring countries, such as Germany or Austria.

Swiss health authorities said on Tuesday that 11,288 people had died with a laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

(Reporting by Arnd Wiegmann and Silke Koltrowitz; Editing by Bill Berkrot)