Several dozen people are presumed dead and around 100 injured after a fire ripped through a crowded bar in the luxury Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, police said Thursday.
Police, firefighters and rescuers rushed to the popular resort, which is set to host the Ski World Cup from January 30, after the fire broke out in the early hours of New Year's Day.
A tourist from New York, who filmed bright orange flames pouring from the bar, told AFP he saw people running and screaming.
Authorities said they were still investigating the causes of the fire, which erupted at around 1:30 am (0030 GMT) at Le Constellation bar, but said they did not believe it had been caused by an "attack".
"Several dozen people are presumed to have died," Frederic Gisler, police commander in the Wallis canton in southwestern Switzerland, told reporters, adding that around 100 people had been wounded, many of them seriously.
"All the injured are being treated," he said.
The emergency unit at the main hospital in the Wallis was full, with the injured being transported to various hospitals across Switzerland.
More than a dozen victims had been transported to the Zurich University Hospital in northern Switzerland, the Keystone-ATS news agency reported, while others were sent to major hospitals in Lausanne and Geneva.