At least 47 people have died and 115 were injured after a fire tore through a crowded bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana during New Year's Eve celebrations, police have confirmed. The blaze broke out at around 1:30 am local time at Le Constellation, a bar popular with tourists and young people, as revellers rang in the new year.
Police in the canton of Valais said the fire was accidental, ruling out arson. Witnesses reported seeing a bartender carrying a female staff member who was holding a lit candle in a champagne bottle, which set fire to a wooden ceiling. The flames quickly spread, causing the ceiling to collapse. Panicked partygoers broke windows to escape, and a crowd surge occurred as people tried to flee from a basement nightclub up a narrow staircase.
Video from the scene showed orange flames billowing from the ground-floor bar, with screams audible over loud music. Several people were seen collapsed outside the building. The morning after, mourners left flowers at the police cordon, while forensic teams entered tents set up around the club. An adjacent apartment block also sustained damage from the fire.
Ulysse Brozzo, a 16-year-old ski instructor, said several friends were in the club at the time, with some still unaccounted for. He speculated that shisha pipes may have caused the fire, as charcoal could have spilled. Authorities have opened a full investigation, with patients dispatched to hospitals in Sion, Lausanne, Geneva, and Zurich. Prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud said authorities were working to identify victims and return bodies to families.
