Ben Tobiasand
Patrick Jackson
Italian Golf Federation
Emanuele Galeppini, an Italian golfer, is feared dead in the blaze
Around 40 people have died and 115 people are injured as a result of a fire in a bar in a ski resort in south-west Switzerland, police say.
A teenage golfer from Italy is the first victim to be named by media, though not officially.
It is likely the bar, Le Constellation in the resort of Crans-Montana, was full of Swiss people and tourists celebrating New Year’s Day in the early hours of Thursday when the blaze began.
It is being treated as a fire and there is “no question” of an attack, the region’s chief prosecutor said.
Switzerland’s President Guy Parmelin called it “one of the worst tragedies” experienced by the country.
A helpline has been set up for concerned families: +41 848 112 117
Here is what we know so far.
Italian golfer Emanuele Galeppini feared dead
Several media outlets have named Italian golfer Emanuele Galeppini, 17, as the first identified victim of the fire following a statement from the Italian Golf Federation.
A spokesperson for the Italian foreign ministry told the BBC it was not confirming this.
In a tribute, the Italian Golf Federation called Emanuele a “young athlete who carried with him passion and authentic values”. But the statement does not mention the fire in Switzerland.
Local Italian media previously reported Emanuele’s father had said his son was at the bar on the night of the fire, and that the family had last had contact with him at midnight.
At a news conference on Thursday afternoon police said around 40 people had been killed in the fire and 115 people were injured.
Around 80-100 of those are in a critical condition, regional security official Stéphane Ganzer told RTL TV on Friday, adding that the death toll could rise.
Reuters
The injured were transported to hospitals across Switzerland and other countries.
Work is ongoing to identify the victims and return bodies to families as quickly as possible, the region’s attorney general Beatrice Pilloud said, but officials have warned that it could take days or even weeks to identify the victims.
Twenty two patients were admitted to Lausanne hospital’s specialist burns unit on Thursday but the unit reportedly does not have enough beds to treat so many.
Italy said six of its citizens were missing, with 13 others in hospital.
France said eight of its citizens were missing and it could not rule out that French nationals were among the dead. Two French citizens were injured and will be treated in France, along with one Swiss citizen.
French football club FC Metz said one of its youth players was “severely burned” in the fire. Tahirys Dos Santos, 19, was airlifted to a hospital in Germany for treatment, it added.
Fourteen of the injured are believed to be from Poland and are due to be transferred to Polish hospitals.
The UK embassy in Switzerland says it is monitoring the situation but it has not been approached for assistance.
Consular staff are on standby to support any British nationals affected, a Foreign Office statement said.
What caused the fire?
The cause of the fire, which began at 01:30 (00:30 GMT), is currently unknown but authorities say initial evidence does not suggest an attack.
Asked about earlier reports of an explosion, Mr Ganzer said it “is not the detonation of an explosive device that causes the fire, it is the fire which, as it develops, causes an explosion and a general conflagration of the premises”.
Two French nationals who said they were in the bar at the time described seeing a waitress put a birthday candle on top of a champagne bottle.
“One of the candles was held too close to the ceiling, which caught fire. In a matter of seconds, the entire ceiling was ablaze. Everything was made of wood.” Emma and Albane told French media outlet BFMTV.
They described the evacuation as “very difficult” because the escape route was “narrow” and the stairs to get outside “even narrower”.
In a news conference on Thursday, Ms Pilloud did not confirm if the staircases were narrow, adding that investigations would assess whether they were in line with requirements. She said it was too early to comment on any safety failures.
Watch: BBC reports from the scene of Swiss resort bar fire
What do we know about the bar?
Le Constellation is a large bar which has been around for many years.
Although the resort of Crans-Montana itself is quite upmarket, Le Constellation was not particularly posh, the BBC’s Silvia Costeloe reports from the resort.
Upstairs, there is an area with TV screens where people go to watch football matches. Downstairs is a big bar where people were probably drinking and dancing.
It could hold up to 300 people and had a small terrace, although it is unknown how many people were there at the time of the fire.
The Christmas and New Year holidays are one of the busiest times of the year for Alpine ski resorts.
A promotional video posted on YouTube for Le Constellation, published in May 2024, showed women in motorcycle helmets walking through the bar while carrying sparklers in alcohol bottles above their heads.
The caption, written in French, read: “The Constellation Crans-Montana welcomes you every day from 9am to 2am, 365 days a year without interruption.”
Correction 2 January: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the attorney general said the staircases appeared to be narrow. This was a result of an error in the live broadcast translation of the press conference and the story has since been amended.
Police Cantonale Valaisanne
Police have released images from inside the bar after the fire showing chairs and benches strewn across the room
