Overview
- Authorities report roughly 40 fatalities and about 115 people injured, most in critical condition, after the New Year’s blaze at Le Constellation.
- Prosecutors say the leading hypothesis is accidental ignition from bottle sparklers that reached the ceiling, with witness videos showing flames racing through ceiling foam and a deflagration caused by the fire.
- Identification of the dead is underway and expected to take days, a crisis center is supporting families, and national flags will fly at half-mast for five days.
- Foreign nationals are among the victims, with nine French citizens injured and eight unaccounted for, about fifteen Italians injured with others missing, and patients transferred to hospitals across Switzerland as well as into France and Italy.
- A judicial investigation is examining venue practices and safety features at the bar, which can host about 300 people inside and includes a basement event space; attack motives have been explicitly excluded.