(LONDON) — Around 40 people were killed and 115 others were injured early on New Year’s Day, when a fire ripped through a popular bar in a resort town in the Swiss Alps, police said.
The Swiss president said the fire caused one of the worst tragedies that the country has ever experienced.
A blaze of “undetermined origin” broke out at the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana at about 1:30 a.m. local time, the Cantonal Police of Valais said in a statement.
Investigators were working on Thursday to determine the cause of the fire, officials said during a morning press conference. The incident was not being investigated as an attack, they added.
“A large contingent of police, firefighters, and rescue personnel immediately responded to the scene to assist the numerous victims,” police said in their statement.
A no-fly zone was put in place over Crans-Montana, police said in their statement. The resort town is popular with skiers and sits in Switzerland’s southern Sierre District in the Canton of Valais.
Police have not released the identities of those who were killed in the blaze. Officials on Thursday said it was likely, given the popularity of the area with travelers, that some of the deceased were tourists who traveled to the Alpine town to ski and to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
The French Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement that at least two French nationals were among the injured. Both were being treated in local hospitals, the ministry said. French officials were “in constant contact with the Swiss authorities in case other nationals are affected,” the ministry added.
ABC News’ Tom Soufi-Burridge contributed to this report.
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