Early on Thursday, as young revelers celebrated the New Year, a fire tore through a packed bar in the upscale Swiss ski resort town of Crans-Montana, leaving dozens dead and over 100 injured.
Horrified onlookers described “panic” as individuals streamed into the street, covered in burns, and others attempted to smash the bar’s windows in order to flee.
After the fire started early on New Year’s Day, police, firefighters, and rescuers raced to the well-known resort, which is scheduled to host the Ski World Cup starting on January 30.
Frederic Gisler, police commander in the Wallis canton in southwestern Switzerland, told reporters that authorities had counted “around 40 people who have died and around 115 injured, most of them seriously”.
Gian Lorenzo Cornado, Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland, later told AFP in Wallis that the death toll had risen to 47, but Swiss police said they could not confirm a specific number.
This was “one of the worst tragedies that our country has experienced”, Guy Parmelin, who took over the Swiss presidency on Thursday, told reporters.
“It constitutes a calamity of unprecedented, terrifying proportions,” he said, announcing that flags would be flown at half mast for five days.
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