Crans-Montana (AFP) – Several dozen people are presumed dead and around 100 injured after a fire ripped through a crowded bar in the luxury Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, police said Thursday.
Police, firefighters and rescuers rushed to the popular resort, which is set to host the Ski World Cup from 30 January, after the fire broke out in the early hours of New Year's Day.
A tourist from New York, who filmed bright orange flames pouring from the bar, told the French news agency AFP he saw people running and screaming.
Authorities said they were still investigating the causes of the fire, which erupted at around 1:30am local time at Le Constellation bar, but said they did not believe it had been caused by an "attack".
"Several dozen people are presumed to have died," Frederic Gisler, police commander in the Wallis canton in southwestern Switzerland, told reporters, adding that around 100 people had been wounded, many of them seriously.
"All the injured are being treated," he said.
The emergency unit at the main hospital in the Wallis was full, with the injured being transported to various hospitals across Switzerland.
More than a dozen victims had been transported to the Zurich University Hospital in northern Switzerland, the Keystone-ATS news agency reported, while others were sent to major hospitals in Lausanne and Geneva.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani meanwhile said on X that the Niguarda severe burns centre in Milan was "available".
Rush to identify victims
Guy Parmelin, who took over the Swiss presidency on Thursday, decried a "terrible tragedy".
"What was meant to be a moment of joy has turned the first day of the year in Crans-Montana into a day of mourning affecting the entire country and beyond," he said on X.
At least two French citizens were among the injured, according to initial reports from the French foreign ministry.
French President Emmanuel Macron offered on X "France's full solidarity and fraternal support to Switzerland".
The Italian foreign ministry said information from Swiss police indicated that around 40 people had died, but Swiss authorities told reporters that it was too early to provide an exact number of victims.
They however acknowledged that since Crans-Montana is popular with tourists around the world, they expected them to include a number of nationalities.
Wallis's chief prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud said that significant resources were being mobilised "to identify the victims and return their bodies as quickly as possible to the families".
Le Constellation has a capacity of 300 people, plus another 40 people on its terrace, according to the Crans-Montana website.
Ambulances were still parked outside the bar hours later, and broken windows could be seen. Swiss media described a "smell of burning still in the air".
'Scene of chaos'
Swiss media suggested that the fire may have started when pyrotechnics were used during a concert.
Stephane Ganzer, head of Wallis's security department, however said "the initial investigation shows... the explosion was in fact a consequence of the fire".
"It wasn't an explosive device that caused the fire," he told reporters.
"As things stand, we are favouring the theory of a fire, and there is absolutely no question of a terrorist attack," stressed Pilloud, the prosecutor.
Some 10 helicopters, 40 ambulances and 150 health workers took part in the response, authorities said.
When emergency services arrived, they found "a scene of chaos", Ganzer said.
But as news of the fire broke, they said, the carefree mood vanished and people began gathering in the street. "We could hear the sirens in the distance. Around me, people were stunned, worried, silent."
"We heard helicopters all night long," another neighbour told 24 heures.
"With the fireworks, we didn't understand what was going on at first. Then we saw the smoke. It's terrible, a lot of young people go to that bar."
