'200 People Tried To Escape In 30 Seconds': Witness Recalls Swiss Fire Horror

Soon after midnight, a fire ripped through a bar's New Year celebration in a Swiss Alpine resort. Dozens of people are feared dead, and about 100 more are injured, most seriously, police said. 

During a news conference, Valais Canton police commander Frederic Gisler said that "several tens of people" were presumed killed at the bar. 

Although Beatrice Pilloud, Valais Canton attorney general, said it was too early to determine the cause of the fire, two French eyewitnesses – Emma and Albane – who were ringing in the new year at Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana said that the fire was a result of a candle being "held too close to the ceiling, which caught fire".

According to BFMTV, a French news channel, the eyewitnesses said that a waitress had put birthday candles on top of champagne bottles, which were then held up to the ceiling. "In a matter of seconds, the entire ceiling was ablaze. Everything was made of wood," they said.

People tried to make their way out of the room as the fire rose very quickly. "The entire ceiling was on fire; even the first floor was on fire," they recalled. 

The evacuation was very difficult, they said, as the escape route out of the room was very narrow and the stairs leading outside were even narrower. They recounted how 200 people were trying to get out of the bar within 30 seconds.

The BBC has reported that most victims are aged 16 to 26 and are "the most serious cases".

Police have clarified that it was not a terrorist attack but a fire incident. The area has been completely closed off, and a no-fly zone has been imposed over Crans-Montana, the police said in a statement.

The injured were so numerous that the intensive care unit and operating theatre at the regional hospital quickly hit full capacity, Mathias Renard, head of the regional government, said.

Swiss President Guy Parmelin said in a social media post that the government's "thoughts go to the victims, to the injured and their relatives, to whom it addresses its sincere condolences."

Crans-Montana is a luxury ski resort town located in the heart of the Alps in the region of Valais, approximately two hours from the Swiss capital of Bern.