Switzerland fire latest: Families of missing teenagers plead for information as likely cause of deadly blaze identified

The director of a Lausanne hospital has said that the injured victims are “young” according to Sky News.

Those being treated for injuries at the hospital are aged between 16 and 26, he said.

The bar is said to have been favoured by young people, according to locals.

Survivors of the fire have described how people frantically tried to escape from a basement nightclub.

Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV they were inside when they saw a male bartender lifting a female bartender on his shoulders as she held a lit candle in a bottle.

The flames spread, collapsing the wooden ceiling, they told the broadcaster.

Another witness speaking to BFMTV described people smashing windows to escape the blaze, some gravely injured, and panicked parents rushing to the scene in cars to see whether their children were trapped inside.

The young man said he saw about 20 people scrambling to get out of the smoke and flames and likened what he saw to a horror movie as he watched from across the street.

The King has said he is “greatly saddened” by a fire at a Swiss ski resort which killed around 40 people at a new year party.

Charles said it was “utterly heartbreaking that a night of celebration for young people and families instead turned to such nightmarish tragedy”.

One teenager who survived the blaze, described “total chaos” inside the bar.

16-year-old Axel Clavier from Paris explained that one of his friends died and a couple were missing.

He told The Associated Press he hadn’t seen the fire start, but did see waitresses arrive with Champagne bottles with sparklers, he said.

He recalled feeling like he was suffocating and hiding behind a table, before running upstairs and using a table to break a Plexiglas window.

It fell out of its casing, allowing him to escape.

He lost his jacket, shoes, phone and bank card while fleeing, but “I am still alive and it’s just stuff.”

“I’m still in shock,” he added.

A teenager who was a former pupil at a British school is among those missing.

Charlotte Niddam, believed to be 15, previously attended Immanuel College in Hertfordshire, according to multiple reports.

In a statement published by several newspapers, the private Jewish school confirmed she was missing.

The school urged the community to come together and said it was “praying for a miracle”.

According to the Crans-Montana resort website, she had been working as a babysitter in the area.

British foreign secretary Yvette Cooper has offered her support and condolences to those affected by the tragedy in Switzerland.

“As the Swiss emergency services continue to respond to the devastating tragedy in Crans-Montana, I have expressed our support to my counterpart @IgnazioCassis,” she wrote in a post on X/Twitter on Friday.

“Our thoughts are with all the victims and their families. The FCDO stand ready to support any British Nationals affected.”

Survivors of a deadly blaze that tore through a luxury ski resort are being treated across Europe after local hospitals reached capacity, according to The Guardian.

Injured victims were taken to Belgium, France and Germany after regional medical facilities reached their limit.

A Swiss news agency reported that more than 30 people were taken to specialist burns hospitals in Zurich and Lausanne while six were taken to Geneva.

Authorities have said identification could taken days or weeks due to the severity of the burns inflicted.

Around 40 people – many of them young – have been killed after a fire ripped through a busy bar in a popular Swiss ski resort during New Year’s Eve celebrations, in what has been described as one of the country’s “worst tragedies”.

At least 119 others have been injured with the vast majority in a “serious” or “critical” condition as authorities said local hospitals have reached capacity in the Alpine resort of Crans-Montana.

The blaze broke out in the early hours of New Year’s Day, with footage showing crowds escaping the Le Constellation bar engulfed in flames.

Revellers were gathered at the venue to celebrate the start of 2026 when horrific scenes unfolded.