Death toll reaches 40 after fire at Swiss Alpine bar during New Year’s celebration

The death toll from a fire that tore through a bar during New Year celebrations at a Swiss Alpine resort has risen to 40, with at least 115 others injured, most of them seriously, police said. The blaze broke out at the Le Constellation bar in the Crans-Montana resort less than two hours after midnight on Thursday (January 1).

Authorities did not immediately have an exact count of the deceased. 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 one of Switzerland's worst tragedies. The country will hold five days of mourning.

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Valais Canton police commander Frédéric Gisler said during a news conference that work is underway to identify the victims and inform their families, adding that the community is “devastated.” Thirteen of the wounded were Italian citizens, and another six Italians are unaccounted for, Italy's ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, told state-run RAI television.

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.

She later said the number of people who were in the bar is “currently totally unknown,” adding that its maximum capacity will be part of the investigation.

“For the time being, we don't have any suspect,” she added, when asked if anyone had been arrested over the fire. “An investigation has been opened, not against anyone, but to illuminate the circumstances of this dramatic fire.” Gisler said the priority until further notice would be identifying the victims, and added that “this work will have to take several days.”

Axel Clavier, a 16-year-old from Paris who survived the blaze, described “total chaos” inside the bar. One of his friends died and “two or three" were missing, he told The Associated Press. He said he hadn't seen the fire start, but did see waitresses arrive with Champagne bottles with sparklers, he said.

(With agency inputs)