Trapped In The Smoke: Chilling Footage Captures Woman Gasping For Breath In Swiss Nightclub Blaze | WATCH

New Delhi: The Crans-Montana resort, best known as an international ski and golf venue, morphed from a scene of revelry into the site of one of Switzerland’s worst tragedies when at least 40 people lost their lives and 115 were injured after a devastating fire ripped through the bar’s New Year celebration on Thursday.

Eyewitness recount horror

The harrowing visuals from the accident site has sent shockwaves worldwide where panic and chaos engulfed the scene in no time after the blaze. The incident left people terrified where they ran from pillar to post to save their lives and the Central European country observes five days of national mourning following the tragic incident.

One of the eyewitnesses Axel Clavier, a 16-year-old from Paris who survived the blaze, described “total chaos” inside the bar. One of his friends died and “two or three” were missing, as per news agency Associated Press.

He added, “He felt like he was suffocating and initially hid behind a table, then ran upstairs and tried to use a table to break a Plexiglas window. It fell out of its casing, allowing him to escape".

Another woman described a crowd surge as people frantically tried to escape from a basement nightclub up a narrow flight of stairs and through a narrow door.

'Horror Movie': Shocking video footage emerges

Survivors in one of the deadliest tragedies in modern Swiss history stated how people were 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.

Harrowing footage has surfaced from the heart of the Swiss mountain resort of Crans-Montana, capturing the raw terror of the blaze. In one particularly chilling video, a woman is seen screaming in desperation as she fights to escape the inferno devouring the luxury club."

Additional video evidence shows the chaotic evacuation of the luxury bar. In the footage, an unidentified female exits the building forcefully, appearing to struggle for breath after a male individual forced open the door latch. 

Accompanying social media clips document the rapid spread of the fire, with witnesses repeatedly shouting 'Rush' to expedite the evacuation as the flames intensified."

Authorities rule out attack angle

Following the tragedy at Crans-Montana- one of the top venues on the World Cup circuit- authorities ruled out the question of an attack in the deadly blast and fire in the bar.

Investigators say the focus is firmly on a fire-related incident, though the exact cause remains unknown.

Witness accounts cited by French broadcaster BFMTV suggest the fire may have spread rapidly after a lit candle ignited the wooden ceiling, triggering what officials described as an “embrasement gnralis”,  a sudden, violent flashover or backdraft. Swiss media initially speculated about fireworks, but police say the cause has not been established, as per reports.

Swiss Authorities Face Arduous Task

Investigators on Friday set about the painful task of identifying the burned bodies of a blaze that engulfed a crowded bar and killed around 40 people at a New Year's Eve party in the upscale Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana.

So severe were the burns suffered by the mostly young crowd of revellers in the Le Constellation bar that Swiss officials said it could take days before they name all the victims of the fire that also injured 115, many of them seriously. 

Meanwhile, Embassy of India in Switzerland expressed its profound grief over the tragic fire explosion in Crans-Montana claiming several precious lives. Taking to X, they expressed their heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families of the victims and those injured.

The Swiss blaze on Thursday came 25 years after an inferno in the Dutch fishing town of Volendam on New Year’s Eve, which killed 14 people and injured more than 200 as they celebrated in a cafe.

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