Several people have been killed and many others injured in an explosion at a bar in the luxury Alpine ski resort town of Crans-Montana, Swiss police said early on Thursday.
About 100 people were in the bar at the time of the blast, police said.
“There has been an explosion of unknown origin,” Gaetan Lathion, a police spokesperson in Wallis canton in south-west Switzerland, told AFP. “There are several injured, and several dead.”
He said the explosion took place at about 1.30am local time (0030 GMT) in a bar called Le Constellation, which is popular with tourists, as revellers rang in the new year.
“More than a hundred people were in the building, and we are seeing many injured and many dead,” he said.
Rescuers at the site of an explosion that ripped through a bar in Crans-Montana. Photograph: Maxime Schmid/AFP/Getty Images
Police are holding a press conference at 10am CET. Sion hospital said it had admitted several patients but did not specify a number, according to Le Temps. From the scene on Thursday morning, Romaine Morard, a journalist for the newspaper, described “a smell of burning still in the air”.
The area has been completely closed off, and a no-fly zone has been imposed over Crans-Montana, police said, adding that the cause of the fire remained unclear.
The BBC also reported that several people were killed and others injured in the blast, citing police. Images published by Swiss media showed a building in flames, and emergency services nearby.
A reception centre and helpline have been setup for impacted families, Lathion said.
“We’re just at the beginning of our investigation, but this is a internationally renowned ski resort with lots of tourists,” Lathion said.
Crans-Montana is a municipality in the district of Sierre in the canton of Valais in Switzerland, 25 miles (40km) north of the Matterhorn.
With Agence France-Presse and Associated Press