About 40 people were killed and 115 injured when a fire ripped through a crowded bar during a New Year’s Eve party in the upscale Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, officials said on Thursday. Swiss President Guy Parmelin described the disaster as “one of the worst tragedies our country has ever known” and said most of the dead were young people. The cause of the blaze, initially reported as an explosion, remained unclear but authorities said the fire appeared to be an accident rather than an attack.
Authorities warned that naming the victims or establishing a definitive death toll would take time because many bodies were badly burnt. Experts were using dental and DNA records to try to identify the dead. Video footage verified by Reuters showed fire spreading from the building, and witnesses described scenes of panic and confusion as people rushed to get out.
“There were people screaming, and then people lying on the ground, probably dead,” said 21-year-old Samuel Rapp, who saw the aftermath of the fire. “They had jackets over their faces.” The head of the local canton’s police, Frederic Gisler, said about 40 people were presumed to be dead and 115 were injured, most of them seriously. He said it was too early to give details on the identities of the dead and injured but Italian authorities said six Italians were missing and 13 in hospital.
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Two young French women who said they were in the bar told France’s BFM TV they saw the fire start in the basement section of the club after a bottle containing “birthday candles” was held too close to the wooden ceiling. “The fire spread across the ceiling super quickly,” one of the two women, who identified themselves as Emma and Albane, told BFM TV. Thy said they were able to climb a narrow staircase to the ground floor and escape the building.
Minutes later, the fire had reached the ground floor too, they said. BFM showed a video of a waitress carrying a champagne bottle with a lit “fountain candle” through the bar, one of many in Crans-Montana, a fashionable ski centre with an array of boutiques, luxury hotels and restaurants. The footage did not show the fire breaking out. Local prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud said an investigation had been opened into the blaze at the bar, which Swiss company records showed was owned by a French couple, but she said it was too early to comment on possible safety failures.
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