Around 40 people dead and 115 injured in fire at bar at Swiss ski resort

LAST UPDATE | 1 hr ago

40 PEOPLE ARE BELIEVED to have died and around 115 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.

“Around 40 people” have died and 115 are injured, “many severely”, police commander Frédéric Gisler told a press conference this afternoon.

The priority over the coming days is to identify the people who have died “so that their bodies can be returned rapidly” to their families, Gisler added.

Gisler said that he expects several foreign nationals to be among the victims.

Speaking during the press conference, Swiss President Guy Parmelin described the fire as “one of the worst tragedies that our country has experienced”.

The hospitals in Wallis were full and had declared a state of emergency this morning, with the injured being transported to various hospitals across Switzerland.

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”.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani meanwhile said on X that the Niguarda severe burns centre in Milan was “available”.

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.

Authorities said it was too early to provide an exact number of casualties, but said that since Crans-Montana is popular with tourists around the world, they expected them to include a number of nationalities.

At least two French citizens were among the injured, according to initial reports from the French foreign ministry.

The Irish Embassy in Switzerland has said it was “monitoring the situation” and has listed two phone numbers for Irish citizens who may be in need of consular assistance.

Advertisement

In a post online, Taoiseach Micheál Martin called it “an unimaginable tragedy”. 

“Our thoughts and prayers go to those in Switzerland who lost their lives, the injured, their loved ones, and emergency responders. An unimaginable tragedy on a night of celebration. Our embassy continues to monitor the situation,” he said. 

Guy Parmelin, who took over the Swiss presidency on Thursday, decried a “terrible tragedy”.

“What was meant to be a moment of joy has turned the first day of the year in Crans-Montana into a day of mourning affecting the entire country and beyond,” he said on X.

The scene

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.

Stephane Ganzer, head of Wallis’s security department, however said “the initial investigation shows… the explosion was in fact a consequence of the fire”.

“It wasn’t an explosive device that caused the fire,” he told reporters.

“As things stand, we are favouring the theory of a fire, and there is absolutely no question of a terrorist attack,” stressed Pilloud, the prosecutor.

Some 10 helicopters, 40 ambulances and 150 health workers took part in the response, authorities said.

When emergency services arrived, they found “a scene of chaos”, Ganzer said. 

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

“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