Death count rises to 40 in explosion at Switzerland bar on New Year's Eve, probe underway
The Swiss authorities said the explosion, which happened at the basement of the Le Constellation Bar and Lounge in the ski resort town of Crans-Montana, was being considered a fire and not a terror attack.
At least 40 people were killed and 100 others were injured after an explosion tore through a luxury bar in Switzerland and triggered a massive fire during New Year's Eve celebrations, the Italian Foreign Ministry said, citing Swiss police. Moreover, the Swiss authorities said the explosion, which happened at the basement of the Le Constellation Bar and Lounge in the ski resort town of Crans-Montana, was being considered a fire and not a terror attack. More than 150 people were in the bar at the time of the explosion.
The Crans-Montana resort is best known as an international ski and golf venue, and overnight, its crowded Le Constellation bar morphed from a scene of revelry into the site of potentially one of Switzerland's worst tragedies. “Several tens of people” were presumed killed at the bar, Valais Canton police commander Frederic Gisler said during a news conference.
Work is underway to identify the victims
Work is underway to identify the victims and inform their families, but “that will take time and for the time being, it is premature to give you a more precise figure," Gisler said, adding that the community is “devastated”.
Beatrice Pilloud, Valais Canton attorney general, 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.
Helicopters and ambulances rushed to scene to assist victims
Helicopters and ambulances rushed to the scene to assist victims, including some from different countries, officials said. Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV that they were inside when they saw a barman carrying a barmaid on his shoulders. The barmaid was holding a lit candle in a bottle that set fire to the wooden ceiling. The flames quickly spread and collapsed the ceiling, they told the broadcaster.
One of the women described a crowd surge as people frantically tried to escape from a basement nightclub up a narrow flight of stairs and through a narrow door. Another witness speaking to BFMTV described people smashing windows to escape the blaze, some gravely injured, and panicked parents rushing to the scene in cars to see whether their children were trapped inside.
Locals witness 20 people scrambling to get out of fire
The young man said he saw about 20 people scrambling to get out of the smoke and flames and likened what he saw to a horror movie as he watched from across the street. Officials described how the blaze likely triggered the release of combustible gases that ignited violently and caused what English-speaking firefighters call a flashover or backdraft.
“This evening should have been a moment of celebration and coming together, but it turned into a nightmare,” said Mathias Reynard, head of the regional government of the Valais Canton. The injured were so numerous that the intensive care unit and operating theatre at the regional hospital quickly hit full capacity, Reynard said. Crans-Montana is less than 5 km from Sierre, Switzerland, where 28 people, including many children, were killed when a bus from Belgium crashed inside a Swiss tunnel in 2012.
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Switzerland: Several dead, many injured in explosion at ski resort town of Crans-Montana