What is known so far about the tragedy in Switzerland. “People were trying to break the window with bar stools”

“About 40 people” died and 115 others were injured, most of them seriously, in a fire that broke out in the Le Constellation bar in the southwestern Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana during a New Year's Eve party, Swiss authorities said. The cause of the fire is not clear, but some people who escaped the bar with their lives say a birthday candle on top of a bottle of champagne ignited the ceiling, the BBC and Reuters report.

The fire broke out at 1:30 local time (02:30 Romanian time). Initially, it was reported to be an explosion. The cause of the fire has not yet been confirmed, but authorities have ruled out an attack.

How many people were killed

Swiss authorities held a press conference on Thursday afternoon, announcing that “around 40 people” had died in the massive fire. According to the police, people from several countries are victims of the fire. It is the first time that the authorities have given a toll on the victims since the fire broke out.

Previously, the police spoke only of “dozens of dead”.

At least 115 other people were injured, most with severe burns, Swiss officials said. Most were taken to the hospital in Valais, where the intensive care unit is now full, according to local authorities. Many other patients were referred to other hospitals for specialist burn treatment.

So far, 22 people have arrived at the Lausanne University Hospital.

Most of the patients are between the ages of 16 and 26 on average and are “the worst cases”, the director of the medical unit Claire Charmet told the Swiss newspaper 24 Heures.

Ten helicopters, 40 ambulances and 150 emergency workers were sent to the scene. Efforts are still being made to identify the victims and return the bodies to their families as quickly as possible, said the chief prosecutor of the canton of Valais, Beatrice Pilloud.

Italy's ambassador to Switzerland says it could take weeks to identify the dead. Earlier, the Italian foreign minister said identification would be difficult due to severe burns.

What caused the fire?

The cause is currently unknown, but prosecutor Pilloud said the tragedy is being treated as an arson and that “at no point is there any question of an attack.”

Asked about earlier reports of an explosion, regional security official Stéphane Ganzer said “it was not the detonation of an explosive device that caused the fire, but the fire which, as it spread, caused an explosion and a general conflagration of the premises”.

Two French women who say they were in the bar at the time described seeing a waitress place a birthday candle on a bottle of champagne.

“One of the candles was held too close to the ceiling, which caught fire. Within seconds, the entire ceiling was on fire. Everything was made of wood,” Emma and Albane told French television station BFMTV.

They described the escape as “very difficult” as the escape route was “narrow” and the stairs to get out “even narrower”.

The general prosecutor of the canton of Valais, Beatrice Pilloud, said in a press conference that “several hypotheses” were advanced regarding the cause of the fire.

Asked by a journalist about these testimonies, according to which champagne bottles with candles could have caused the fire, Beatrice Pilloud said that she could not confirm anything while the investigation was ongoing.

Promotional footage of the bar shows bottles of drinks with fireworks in them being served

A promotional video released in May 2024 for the Le Constellation bar in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana, where a fire broke out that killed around 40 people, shows the drink being served with fireworks, according to the BBC.

The cause of the fire in the Le Constellation bar has not been confirmed by the authorities. People who escaped the burning bar with their lives said they saw a waitress place “a birthday candle” on a bottle of champagne, which set the ceiling on fire.

A May 2024 video shared on YouTube by the account @ConstellationCransMontana shows women wearing motorcycle helmets walking around the bar with alcohol bottles topped with fireworks.

Shocking scenes described by witnesses

Another eyewitness to the fire at Le Constellation told the BBC how he entered the burning building to try to save the people inside.

“I heard a loud explosion and after that I saw a lot of smoke,” the witness told the BBC.

“I thought my little brother was inside, so I came and tried to break the window to help people out,” he added.

He says that once inside he saw people “burning from head to toe, without clothes”.

“It was very shocking,” he said.

The man says firefighters and medics attended, but he tried to help where he could, offering water and clothes to the injured, including giving his jacket to a man with burns.

“It was very disturbing because I went into this bar every day of the week … only the day I left, it burned down,” he continued.

“People were trying to break the window with bar stools”

Alexis, 18, said she was outside the bar when she first noticed the fire “through the glass doors”.

“There was a flame coming out,” he told Swiss broadcaster RTS. “People were running through these flames.”

“People were running through these flames. You could see shadows, people were trying to break the window with bar stools,” he said.

Another witness, Alex, aged 21, told RTS that he had just arrived in front of the bar when the first victims of the fire started to run away.

“I saw someone in their underwear, burned,” Alex said. “That's when I realized there was definitely something wrong,” he continued.

What is known about the bar Le Constellation

Le Constellation is a large bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana that has been around for many years.

Although the resort itself is quite luxurious, Le Constellation was not particularly extravagant, reported BBC journalist Silvia Costeloe, who was sent to the resort.

Upstairs, there is an area with TV screens where people go to watch football matches. Downstairs is a large bar where people probably drank and danced.

It could accommodate up to 300 people and had a small terrace, although it is not known 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 and it is likely that the bar was full of Swiss and tourists celebrating the start of 2026.

Five days of mourning in Switzerland

Switzerland will observe five days of mourning after the fire. The country's president, Guy Parmelin, described the fire as one of the worst events in Switzerland's history.

“It was a tragedy of unknown proportions,” he said, paying tribute to the many “young lives that were lost”.

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