Overview
- An explosion around 1:30 a.m. at Le Constellation in Crans-Montana ignited a fast-moving blaze in a basement club.
- A massive rescue operation stretched intensive care units to capacity, with patients transferred across Switzerland and to hospitals in France and Italy.
- Prosecutors opened an inquiry treating the case as an accident, and witness accounts point to champagne sparklers or similar pyrotechnics as a likely ignition source.
- Authorities say identifying the dead will take days, likely requiring DNA analysis, and caution that many victims are foreign visitors.
- Switzerland declared a period of mourning as President Guy Parmelin called it one of the country’s worst tragedies, while Italy reported 13 nationals injured and six missing.