CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland--Around 40 people were killed and 115 injured when a fire ripped through a crowded bar during a New Year's Eve party in the upscale Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, officials said on Thursday.
Police said the fire broke out at 1:30 a.m. as revellers were celebrating in a bar called Le Constellation in the resort in southwestern Switzerland, which locals said was popular with teenagers.
Swiss President Guy Parmelin described the disaster as "one of the worst tragedies our country has ever known" and said most of the dead were young people. The cause of the blaze, which was initially reported as an explosion, remained unclear but authorities said the fire appeared to be an accident rather than an attack.
Authorities warned that naming the victims or establishing a definitive death toll would take time because many of the bodies were badly burned. Experts were using dental and DNA records to try to identify the dead.
Video footage verified by Reuters showed fire spreading from the building, and witnesses described scenes of panic and confusion as people rushed to get out. "There were people screaming, and then people lying on the ground, probably dead," said 21-year-old Samuel Rapp, who saw the aftermath of the fire. "They had jackets over their faces."
The head of the local canton's police, Frederic Gisler, said around 40 people were presumed to be dead and 115 were injured, most of them seriously. He said it was too early to give details on the identity of the dead and injured but Italian authorities said 6 Italians were still missing and 13 in hospital.
Two young 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.
BFM showed video of a waitress carrying a champagne bottle with a lit "fountain candle" through the bar, one of many in Crans-Montana, a fashionable ski centre with an array of boutiques, luxury hotels and restaurants. But the footage did not show the fire breaking out.
Local prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud said an investigation had been opened into the blaze at the bar, which Swiss company records showed was owned by a French couple, but she said it was too early to comment on any possible safety failures."There are still many circumstances to be clarified... The most likely scenario at present is that a widespread fire caused an explosion," she told a press conference.
Witnesses said many of those celebrating in the bar appeared to be from different countries. Foreign governments were calling around to establish whether their nationals were among the victims but were facing a lengthy process because the severity of the burns had rendered identification challenging, one European official said.
“We met the families this afternoon and it’s terrible because to be in front of them with all their fear and apprehension and terrible anxiety and we don’t have all the answers. And we won’t have them straight away because identifying them will take time. It’s a terrible situation on the ground. Unimaginable," Mathias Reynard, president of the Valais cantonal government, told Reuters, his voice breaking.
Eight French people were missing, the French foreign ministry said, adding that it could not rule out that French nationals were among the dead.French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to his Swiss counterpart to offer assistance. Three survivors of the fire have been moved to French hospitals and further transfers were under way, the ministry added.
Italy's ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, told Sky TG24 that local authorities had told him the fire was started by someone letting off a firework inside the bar.
