Dozens of people were killed and around 100 injured, most of them seriously, after fire tore through a crowded bar during a New Year’s Eve party in the upscale Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, officials said on Thursday.
Fire broke out at 1.30am 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.
Swiss police said “tens” of people were presumed dead, with around 100 injured, and the Italian foreign ministry said information from Swiss police indicated about 40 deaths. Swiss officials declined to give a specific figure.
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“There were people screaming, and then people lying on the ground, probably dead,” said 21-year-old local Samuel Rapp, who saw the aftermath of the fire. “They had jackets over their faceswell, thats what I saw, nothing more.”
Video footage showed lines of ambulances queuing and helicopters landing to take victims to nearby hospitals and specialist burns units in other Swiss cities.
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, in line with the account, but the video did not show the fire taking hold.
Video footage verified by Reuters showed fire spreading from the building, with people outside the club, some of them running and screaming.
Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, told Sky TG24 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.
Witnesses described the injured 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.
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