Credit: via X
The New Year’s party was well underway when the tragedy occurred.
As about 200 revelers celebrated in the packed basement of the Le Constellation bar, a barmaid carrying a champagne bottle topped with a sparkler made her way through the crowd.
The barmaid, who is carried on the shoulders of a colleague, held the bottle above her head near the ceiling of the cellar, and caught it, witnesses said.
Footage showed flames quickly spreading across the roof above the bar as the music continued to play at around 1.30am local time on New Year’s Day.
A crowd of party goers, the vast majority aged between 15 and 20, ran to escape down a narrow staircase through one door. Others tried to break the windows to escape as the fire started to spread on the ground floor.
At least 40 were killed and 115 were injured. Many of the victims are believed to have been trapped in the basement level of the bar, witnesses said, with reports suggesting there were insufficient emergency exits.
Credit: via X
The Police are investigating whether the bar, which the videos show was densely packed, had exceeded the legal limit on the number of customers. Videos showed young people leaving the place as the fire spread.
Emma, a French witness, said that the fire had spread “in seconds”, he told the French news channel BFMTV: “Some of the bottles were near the roof and caught fire. The whole roof was in flames and the fire spread very quickly. It happened in seconds. We all ran outside, screaming and crying.
“I saw a young man writhing in agony on the ground. His body and hair were badly burned and half of his face was gone. I think he must have died.”
Parents rushed to the scene from across the city and beyond, trying to find out if their children were trapped inside.
The upmarket resort town of Crans-Montana, 25 miles north of the Matterhorn mountain and about 150 miles from Zurich, is popular with tourists from Britain and elsewhere, who go there for the skiing and party atmosphere.
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Described by some as the “best place to celebrate New Year’s Eve” in the city, Le Constellation was full of young people, mostly between 15 and 20 years old, witnesses said.
“The party was in full swing … music and champagne flowing freely,” according to one witness.
Sparklers of light in bottles in the cramped confines of the cellar were even featured in a promotional video for the place previously uploaded on social media.
It showed waitresses wearing crash helmets walking through the club, waving pyrotechnics flaring from bottles of Dom Perignon champagne precariously close to the raftered ceiling.
Credit: YouTube / Constellation Crans Montana
Another witness, called Albane, said she saw the roof catch fire after the fireworks in the bottle were lit. “It was clearly accidental,” she added.
A young man watching from across the street said he saw about 20 people struggling to escape from the smoke and flames.
Likening what he had seen to a “horror film”, he told The Telegraph: “We are devastated. It looks like there were sparklers. They should be banned.”
“How did this happen? I heard shouting afterwards. People came out everywhere, and then the fire engines came.”
Referring to the sparkler that caused the fire, a bus driver told The Telegraph: “They are banned in many clubs and should never be left anywhere near crowded places. This is an absolute tragedy.”
The narrow staircase up from the basement in Le Constellation
The local authority of Crans-Montana had banned fireworks and sparklers during New Year’s Eve celebrations over concerns that a lack of rain over the past month had left conditions dangerously dry, increasing the risk of fires starting and spreading quickly.
A local reported hearing loud explosions coming from the vicinity of Le Constellation.
“I heard a number of massive bangs, which sounds like bombs going off. It was crazy,” they said. “I live hundreds of meters from the bar. I heard yelling and screaming and people running.”
Adrien, a witness who was outside the bar when the fire broke out, described the horror of seeing those inside running for their lives. He said: “There was a burnt young man on the pavement outside who kept saying: ‘It hurts, I’m in pain, please call an ambulance.'”
Helicopters and ambulances rushed to the scene, with emergency services from neighboring countries deployed to assist the rescue operation.
The intensive care unit and the operating theater at the regional hospital were overwhelmed with victims. Those who suffered the worst burns were sent to university hospitals across Switzerland.
With the scale of the tragedy quickly becoming apparent, the authorities have asked residents to exercise caution in the coming days to avoid putting more pressure on the medical system.
Credit: Tiktok / Ladzdrie92i
Michela Ris, the vice mayor of the Swiss town of Ascona, who was in Crans-Montana to celebrate New Year’s Eve, described how she was frantically looking for friends on New Year’s morning.
“Some acquaintances told me about young people leaving the bar covered in blood, some without clothes. It was a real blood bath,” she told the Swiss media.
“We have friends who are not responding to the messages. Maybe they are just sleeping, but we don’t know if, after being at our house, they went straight home or if they went for the last drink, maybe in the very club where the tragedy happened.
“We are very worried and we are trying to contact everyone, one by one, to make sure they are ok. We are devastated.”
About 50 family members were waiting for news of missing loved ones.
As morning broke, residents and commuters gathered outside the building, many in tears, devastated by the night’s events in their city.
As the region declared a period of mourning, Mathias Rénard, head of the regional government, told reporters: “Tonight should have been a moment of celebration and coming together – but it turned into a nightmare.”
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