About 40 people are believed to have been killed and 115 injured after a fire tore through a crowded bar during a New Year's Eve party in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana. Swiss police confirmed several dozen partygoers were dead, with the blaze thought to be the result of an accident, not arson.
The fire started at about 1.30am local time in a bar called Le Constellation, popular with tourists, as revellers rang in the new year. A police spokesperson in the canton of Valais said more than a hundred people were in the building. Video from the scene showed orange flames billowing from inside the ground-floor bar and lounge, with screams and loud music audible.
Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV that they saw a bartender carrying a female staff member on his shoulders, holding a lit candle in a champagne bottle that set fire to a wooden ceiling. The flames quickly spread and collapsed the ceiling. Another witness described partygoers breaking windows to escape, some gravely injured, and panicked parents rushing to the scene.
The venue had a bar on the main floor and narrow stairs leading to a basement nightclub, where it was speculated people could have become trapped. A 16-year-old ski instructor said several friends were inside, and some were in a coma at hospital. He suggested shisha pipe charcoal could have caused the fire.
Patients were dispatched to hospitals in Sion, Lausanne, Geneva and Zurich. The police commander said everyone was shaken by the incident. Authorities opened a full investigation, with the prosecutor stating they were not considering an attack.
