40 dead, over 100 injured in fire at Swiss Alps bar during New Year's celebration

Public Lokpal
January 01, 2026

Crans-Montana: Swiss police believe around 40 people died and about 100 were injured in a fire that broke out during a New Year’s Eve party at a bar in the Alpine resort town of Crans-Montana, the Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The ministry also said in the statement that the fire was not believed to have been caused by arson and stressed that the victims could not be immediately identified because of the severity of their burns. Swiss authorities also clarified that the incident was being treated as a fire and not as an attack.

Emergency services mounted a massive response, mobilising 10 helicopters and 40 ambulances. The intensive care unit at Valais Hospital quickly reached full capacity, forcing authorities to transfer patients to other facilities, Swiss officials said. Some of the victims are believed to be from other countries.

The scale of the tragedy overwhelmed local medical resources. “The injured were so numerous that the intensive care unit and operating theatre at the regional hospital quickly hit full capacity,” regional councillor Mathias Renard said.

Beatrice Pilloud, attorney general of Valais Canton, said it was too early to determine the cause of the fire, as experts had not yet been able to access the wreckage.

Police said they could not immediately be more precise about how many people had been killed in the blaze. “We are devastated,” Frederic Gisler, commander of the Valais Cantonal police, told a news conference.

The municipality had banned New Year’s Eve fireworks due to a lack of rainfall over the past month, according to its website. In the aftermath of the disaster, authorities urged residents and visitors in the busy ski region to exercise caution in the coming days to avoid accidents that could further strain already overwhelmed medical services.

Crans-Montana lies in the heart of the Swiss Alps, about 40 kilometres north of the Matterhorn and 130 kilometres south of Zurich. The resort town has a population of around 10,000 residents, with its highest point reaching nearly 3,000 metres above sea level. The municipality was formed in 2017 through the merger of several towns and has been seeking to diversify beyond tourism by attracting high-tech research and development.

Agencies