Investigators raced on Friday to identify the victims of a fire that ripped through a bar in the Swiss Alps town of Crans-Montana, turning a New Year’s celebration into one of the country’s worst tragedies. It is not yet clear what set off the blaze at Le Constellation, killing around 40 people and injuring at least 115 others, many seriously. Bystanders described scenes of panic and chaos as people tried to break the windows to escape and others, covered in burns, poured into the street.
Swiss police warned it could take days or even weeks to identify everyone who perished, leaving an agonising wait for family and friends. “We’ve tried to reach our friends. We took loads of photos and posted them on Instagram, Facebook, all possible social networks to try to find them,” said Eleonore, 17.
“But there’s nothing. No response.” The exact number of people who were at the bar when it went up in flames remains unclear, and police have not specified how many are still missing. Le Constellation had a capacity of 300 people, plus another 40 people on its terrace, according to the Crans-Montana website.
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Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who took over on Thursday, called the fire “a calamity of unprecedented, terrifying proportions”, and announced that flags would be flown at half mast for five days. He said authorities were “in close contact with the victims’ families, whom we are informing in real time, as well as with the various embassies involved”. “Given the international nature of the Crans resort, we can expect foreign nationals to be among the victims,” he told reporters.
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