'Several dozen' people presumed dead and around 100 injured in fire at bar at Swiss ski resort

LAST UPDATE | 1 hr ago

‘SEVERAL DOZEN PEOPLE’ are believed to have died and around 100 were injured when a fire ripped through a crowded bar in the luxury Swiss ski resort town of Crans-Montana last night, police have said.

“Several dozen people are presumed to have died,” Frederic Gisler, police commander in the Wallis canton in southwestern Switzerland, told reporters at a press conference this morning. 

Police have said they have ruled out a terror attack as part of their investigations but that witness statements reported that the fire spread “rapidly”.

Police, firefighters and rescuers rushed to the popular resort late last night as the tragedy unfolded. 

As revellers rang in the new year, a “fire of undetermined origin” broke out in a bar popular with tourists, police in the Wallis canton in southwestern Switzerland said in an earlier statement.

A police spokesman named the bar as Le Constellation, which has a capacity of 300 people and another 40 people on its terrace, according to the Crans-Montana website.

The spokesman said some 100 people had gathered there for New Year celebrations.

A tourist from New York filmed bright orange flames pouring from the bar, and told AFP he saw people running and screaming in the dark.

Swiss daily Blick cited a doctor at the scene suggesting that the death toll could be in the “dozens”.

Regional daily Le Nouvelliste also said its sources were describing “a heavy toll”, with “around 40 dead and 100 injured”. 

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Images published by Swiss media showed a building in flames, and people screaming and running in the dark.

Ambulances were still parked outside the bar hours later, and broken windows could be seen. Local media described a “smell of burning still in the air”.

Swiss media suggested that the fire may have started when pyrotechnics were used during a concert, but police said the cause was unknown.

Several hours after the incident began, an AFP photographer saw a number of ambulances on the road from Crans-Montana.

Images published by Swiss media showed a building in flames, and emergency services nearby.

The area has been closed to the public and a no-fly zone has been posed over the town. 

“The party was in full swing… music and champagne flowing freely,” a resident who said they lived nearby told 24 heures, a Lausanne newspaper.

But as news of the fire broke, they said, the carefree mood vanished and people began gathering in the street. “We could hear the sirens in the distance. Around me, people were stunned, worried, silent.”

“We heard helicopters all night long,” another neighbour told 24 heures.

“With the fireworks, we didn’t understand what was going on at first. Then we saw the smoke. It’s terrible, a lot of young people go to that bar.” 

© – AFP 2026 with reporting by Rónán Duffy