Around 40 people have been killed after a fire ripped through a busy bar in a popular Swiss ski resort during New Year’s Eve celebrations, in what has been described as one of the country’s “worst tragedies”.
Some 100 others have been injured, some seriously, as authorities said local hospitals have reached capacity in the Alpine resort of Crans-Montana.
The blaze broke out in the early hours of New Year’s Day, with footage showing crowds escaping the Le Constellation bar engulfed in flames.
Revellers were gathered at the venue to ring in the new year when witnesses described the scenes. The cause of the fire is unknown, but authorities have ruled out an attack and refused to speculate on whether sparklers or lit candles were involved.
Here is everything we know about the incident:
How many people have died?
Around 40 people have been killed and about 100 are injured, most of them seriously.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, the commander of the Valais cantonal police Frédéric Gisler said authorities expect several foreign nationals are among the dead.
Sixteen Italians have been reported missing, while around a dozen more Italian nationals are being treated in hospital, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday.
Swiss president Guy Parmelin also confirmed many of the victims were young people, with hospital directors confirming patients as young as 16 were being treated.
Mr Parmelin called the fire “one of the worst tragedies our country has ever experienced”, saying the deadly incident was “unprecedented” and “horrifying”.
Work is underway to identify the victims and inform their families but "that will take time and for the time being it is premature to give you a more precise figure," Gisler said, adding that the community is "devastated" by the incident.
Where did the blaze take place?
The blast occurred at around 1.30am on Thursday at Le Constellation, a bar popular with tourists in the luxury ski resort of Crans-Montana, in the Valais region, southwestern Switzerland.
The community is in the heart of the Swiss Alps, just 25 miles north of the Matterhorn.
With high-altitude ski runs at around 3,000 meters, Crans-Montana is one of the winter sports centres of Switzerland's Valais region, drawing winter sports enthusiasts from across the world.
The resort is one of the top race venues on the World Cup circuit in Alpine skiing and will host the next world championships over two weeks in February 2027.
The area has been completely closed off, and a no-fly zone has been imposed over Crans-Montana.
What caused the fire?
The exact cause of the blaze is not yet known, but officials have ruled out an attack.
Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV they were inside when they saw a male bartender lifting a female bartender on his shoulders as she held a lit candle in a bottle. The flames spread, collapsing the wooden ceiling, they told the broadcaster.
Video footage appears to show the ceiling of the bar rapidly catching fire, though attorney general Beatrice Pilloud declined to confirm the reports in a press conference on Thursday afternoon.
One of the women described a crowd surge as people frantically tried to escape from a basement nightclub up a narrow flight of stairs and through a narrow door.
The fire is said to have prompted an explosion, which officials described as an "embrasement”.
This is a firefighting term describing how a blaze can trigger the release of combustible gases that can then ignite violently.
This causes what English-speaking firefighters would call a flashover or a backdraft - which is when all combustible materials in an enclosed space ignite at the same time, often engulfing a room.
A witness speaking to local media BFMTV described people smashing windows to escape the blaze, some gravely injured, and panicked parents rushing to the scene in cars to see whether their children were trapped inside.
The young man said he saw about 20 people scrambling to get out of the smoke and flames and likened what he saw to a horror movie as he watched from across the street.
What was the emergency service response?
Some 42 ambulances, 13 helicopters and three “disaster trucks" rushed to the scene as witnesses described the injured being treated in improvised triage centres set up in a nearby bar and in a branch of UBS bank.
Emergency services arrived at the scene within two minutes, and by 5am all injured people had received care.
Regional councillor Mathias Rïnard said the intensive care unit and operating theatre at the regional hospital quickly hit full capacity.
In a region busy with tourists skiing on the slopes, the authorities have called on those in the area to show caution in the coming days to avoid any accidents that could require medical resources that are already overwhelmed.
Atate councillor for Valais Stephane Ganzer said: "Hospitals across the country are dealing with an influx of injured people.
"To help them in their work, please avoid all risky activities today. Thank you on their behalf."
