Berliner Boersenzeitung - Switzerland reels from deadly bar fire two days on as sparklers blamed

Dozens of people badly burnt in the fire early Thursday at the glitzy Alpine town were taken to nearby countries for urgent treatment, while authorities pointed the finger at lit sparklers stuck inside champagne bottles for igniting the ceiling.

The tragedy has sent Switzerland reeling, with families of the hundreds of overwhelmingly young partygoers waiting for news of their loved ones. Most of the 119 people wounded in the fire remained in critical condition.

Of those injured, 113 have been identified, the Wallis canton's regional police commander Frederic Gisler said Friday, adding that officials were working "relentlessly" to finish the job.

Many of those injured were foreign nationals, and given Crans-Montana's international popularity, non-Swiss citizens are also widely expected to figure among the dead.

Among those bracing for the worst was Laetitia Brodard, who said that the last text she received from her son, Arthur, was "Mother, Happy New Year, I love you".

"It's been 40 hours. Forty hours since our children have disappeared. So we should know by now," she told journalists Friday near the makeshift memorial set up near the burnt-out shell of the Le Constellation bar.

With the local hospital in Sion overwhelmed and the wounded being dispersed across different hospitals, Brodard had travelled to Lausanne in western Switzerland and her husband to the capital Bern in the hopes of finding their son among the patients.

The exact number of people who were at Le Constellation when it went up in flames remains unclear. The Crans-Montana website said the venue had a capacity of 300 people plus 40 on its terrace.

- Managers questioned -

Le Constellation's two French managers have been taken in for questioning, with one of them, Jacques Moretti, insisting to the Swiss press that all safety norms were followed.

But the chief prosecutor of the Wallis region, Beatrice Pilloud, said that the standards were among the focuses of the investigation.

Pilloud told reporters Friday that the leading hypothesis was that "sparklers or Bengal candles attached to champagne bottles and lifted too close to the ceiling" had ignited the deadly blaze.

One video showed the low wooden ceiling -- covered with soundproofing foam -- catching alight and the flames spreading quickly, but revellers continuing to dance, unaware of the death trap they were in.

Once they realised, panic set in.

Eyewitnesses described scenes of chaos as people tried to break through the windows to escape, while others, covered in burns, poured out into the street.

Nathan, who had been in the bar before the fire, saw burnt people streaming out of the site.

"They were asking for help, crying out for help," he said, declining to give his last name.

Edmond Cocquyt, a Belgian tourist, told AFP he saw bodies "covered with a white sheet" and "young people, totally burnt, who were still alive ... screaming in pain".

Of the injured, police chief Gisler said that 71 were Swiss, 14 were French, 11 were Italian, and four were from Serbia, along with victims from Bosnia, Belgium, Poland, Portugal and Luxembourg.

Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Romania were among the countries taking in the survivors, according to the European Union.

(P.Werner--BBZ)