Around 40 people, including many youths, were killed and 100 others injured, most of them seriously, after fire tore through a crowded bar during a New Year’s Eve party in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, officials said.
“We count around 40 people who have died and around 115 injured, most of them seriously,” Frederic Gisler, police commander in the Valais canton in southwestern Switzerland, told reporters, as Swiss President Guy Parmelin described the fire as “one of the worst tragedies that our country has experienced”.
The fire broke out at 1.30am (12.30am Irish time) in a bar called Le Constellation in the resort in southwestern Switzerland, which locals said was popular with teenagers.
The cause of the blaze, which was initially reported as an explosion, remains unclear but authorities said it appeared to be an accident rather than an attack.
Two French women who said they were in the bar told France’s BFM TV that they saw the fire start in the basement section of the club after a bottle containing “birthday candles” was held up too close to the wooden ceiling.
“The fire spread across the ceiling super quickly,” one of the two women, who identified themselves as Emma and Albane, told BFM TV. The pair said they were able to climb a narrow staircase to the ground floor and escape the building.
Minutes later, the fire had reached the ground floor too, they said.
The area around the building has been cordoned off by police
Video footage, verified by Reuters, showed fire spreading from the building with people outside the club, some running and screaming.
Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, told Sky TG24 that local authorities had told him the blaze was started by someone letting off a firework inside the bar which set fire to the ceiling.
He was in Crans-Montana, where he said a number of Italians had gathered seeking information about missing relatives or friends.
He declined to say if there were any Italian victims but witnesses said many of those in the bar appeared to be from other countries.
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Witnesses described injured people being treated in improvised triage centres set up in a nearby bar and in a branch of UBS bank and said many suffered after coming out of the heat of the bar into the freezing night air.
“And then it was just ambulances coming back and forth as much as possible,” said Dominic Dubois, who witnessed the frantic scenes as the bodies were brought out.
A waiter in a restaurant near to the bar who declined to be named said that first responders approached staff overnight asking for table cloths to cover the bodies to conceal them from onlookers.
This morning, hours after the explosion, footage from the street outside showed the area cordoned off, with forensic tents behind white screens set up in front of the bar. It was a stark contrast to the panic and confusion that officials said faced first responders who arrived when the alarm was raised.
Coverings are erected around the bar as investigations continue
“The first responders – the firefighters and police officers – arrived at a scene of chaos, at a dramatic scene, in a complicated operations theatre,” Stéphane Ganzer, head of security for Valais canton, told reporters.
He said some of the victims were from other countries, hundreds of personnel were working on the case and a helpline had been opened for relatives, but officials said the grim task of identifying badly burned bodies would take a considerable time.
“I can’t hide from you that we are all shaken by what happened overnight in Crans,” Mr Gisler told a press conference earlier today.
“Our count is about 100 injured, most seriously, and unfortunately tens of people are presumed dead,” he said, adding that patients had been dispatched to hospitals in Sion, Lausanne, Geneva and Zurich.
Local prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud said a full investigation had been opened into the incident, which Swiss company records indicated was owned by a French couple.
“At the moment we are considering this a fire and we are not considering the possibility of an attack,” she told a press conference.
Swiss Federal President Guy Parmelin expressed shock at the scale of the disaster, which came less than a year after a fire in a club in North Macedonia killed 59 people.
“What was meant to be a moment of joy turned, on the first day of the year in Crans-Montana, into mourning that touches the entire country and far beyond,” he said on X, expressing condolences.
The foreign ministers of neighbouring Italy and Germany and other countries including the United States expressed condolences but there was no immediate confirmation of the nationality of any of the victims.
Watch: Video shows ambulances queuing and helicopters landing to take victims to hospital
Ms Pilloud said authorities were trying to get the bodies of the victims to their families.
“A lot of resources have been put into forensics to identify the victims. These resources are intended to allow us to get the bodies to the families as soon as possible,” she said.
Earlier, police said many people were being treated for burns and that the area had been completely closed off, with a no-fly zone imposed over Crans-Montana, which is due to host next year’s Alpine World Ski Championships. Authorities said ten helicopters and 40 ambulances had been deployed.