Overview
- Fire and one or more explosions erupted around 1:30 a.m. at Le Constellation during celebrations, with well over 100 people inside, prompting a major deployment of firefighters, ambulances and rescue helicopters.
- Authorities say the blast’s origin is under investigation with accidental causes under scrutiny, including candles on champagne bottles or indoor pyrotechnics, and officials indicate the explosion likely followed the fire.
- Witness accounts point to fast-moving flames through wood-lined rooms and difficult evacuation from a semibasement space with limited escape routes, including a narrow door and a window smashed to create an exit.
- Foreign nationals are among the victims; Italy reports roughly 15 citizens hospitalized and 16 missing, with embassy teams, a police help line and a family assistance center at the Regent congress hall coordinating support.
- Severely burned patients have been transferred to hospitals in Sion, Lausanne, Geneva and Zurich, with additional airlifts planned to Milan’s Niguarda, and officials warn the casualty count remains provisional with many in critical condition.