Revellers at Swiss Alpine bar describe horror, panic
Axel Clavier felt like he was suffocating inside the Swiss Alpine bar where moments before he’d been ringing in the new year with friends and dozens of other revellers. The 16-year-old from Paris escaped the inferno, which broke out after midnight Thursday, by forcing a window open with a table. But about 40 other partygoers died, including one of Clavier’s friends, falling victim to one of the worst tragedies in Switzerland’s history.
The blaze also injured about 115 people, many of them in their teens to mid-20s, as it ripped through the crowded Le Constellation bar at the ski resort of Crans-Montana, police said. Clavier told The Associated Press that “two or three” of his friends remained missing hours after the disaster. Late Thursday, mourners left candles and flowers in an impromptu memorial near the bar. Hundreds of others prayed for the victims at the nearby Church of Montana-Station.
Pope Leo sent a telegram on Friday to the bishop of Sion to express condolences to the region and pray that “the Lord will welcome the deceased into His abode of peace and light, and will sustain the courage of those who suffer in their hearts or in their bodies.”
Representatives from France and Italy said their nationals are among the missing. Valais Canton police commander Frederic Gisler said during a news conference that work is underway to identify the dead and inform their families, adding that the community is “devastated.”
“We have numerous accounts of heroic actions, one could say, of very strong solidarity in the moment,” Valais regional government head Mathias Reynard told RTS radio Friday. He lauded the work of emergency officials on the day after the fire but added “in the first minutes it was citizens — and in large part young people — who saved lives with their courage.”
Authorities did not immediately have an exact count of the deceased. Beatrice Pilloud, Valais Canton attorney general, said it was too early to determine the cause of the fire but added that investigators have ruled out the possibility of an attack.
