Overview
- Police report about 40 fatalities and roughly 115 injured, most in critical condition, after the New Year’s blaze at Le Constellation.
- Prosecutors have opened an inquiry into an accidental fire, have ruled out terrorism, and say the loud noise was a deflagration caused by the blaze.
- Witness accounts and footage point to bottle-mounted sparklers igniting ceiling materials, a line of inquiry that remains under investigation.
- Hospitals activated emergency plans as patients were moved across Switzerland and transferred to facilities in France and Italy, with France confirming it is receiving the wounded.
- Foreign nationals are among the victims; France counts nine injured and eight unlocated, Italy reports around 15 injured and several missing, flags are at half-mast, and formal identifications will take days.