Dozens of people are feared to have been killed and around 100 others injured after a fire tore through a crowded bar during a New Year’s Eve party in the upscale ski resort of Crans-Montana in southwestern Switzerland, Swiss police said on Thursday.
“Several dozens are presumed to have died,” Frederic Gisler, police commander in the Wallis canton in southwestern Switzerland, told reporters.
Police had earlier said many people were being treated for burns. Most of those injured were in a serious condition, said Mathias Reynard, head of the cantonal government. Valais hospital intensive care unit was full and patients being transferred elsewhere, he said.
Switzerland: Dozens killed in fire at Swiss ski resort
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Some of the victims are from other countries, said Stéphane Ganzer, head of security for the Valais canton. Authorities said 10 helicopters and 40 ambulances had been mobilised.
Police, firefighters and rescuers rushed to the popular resort, one of the top-ranked ski destinations in Europe.
The “fire of undetermined origin” broke out in a bar popular with tourists, police said in a statement.
A police spokesman named the bar as Le Constellation, which has a capacity of 300 people and another 40 people on its terrace, according to the Crans-Montana website.
The spokesman said some 100 people had gathered there for New Year celebrations.
Béatrice Pilloud, attorney general of the Valais Canton, said it was too early to determine the cause of the fire. Experts have not yet been able to go inside the wreckage.
“At no moment is there a question of any kind of attack,” Pilloud said.
A tourist from New York filmed bright orange flames pouring from the bar, and said he saw people running and screaming in the dark.
Ambulances were still parked outside the bar hours later, and broken windows could be seen. Local media described a “smell of burning still in the air”.
Swiss media suggested that the fire may have started when pyrotechnics were used during a concert, but police stress that the cause remains unknown.
Police spokesman Gaetan Lathion said earlier there had first been an “explosion of unknown origin” at around 1:30am (0030 GMT) at Le Constellation.
Police said the areas was “completely closed to the public”, and that “a no-fly zone over Crans-Montana has been imposed”.
“The party was in full swing … music and champagne flowing freely,” a resident who said they lived nearby told 24 heures, a Lausanne newspaper.
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.”
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters
