Several dozen killed in blast and fire at bar in Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana

Several dozen people have been killed and about 100 injured in an explosion and fire at a bar in the luxury Alpine ski resort town of Crans-Montana, Swiss police said early on Thursday.“There has been an explosion of unknown origin,” Gaetan Lathion, a police spokesperson in Wallis canton in south-west Switzerland, told AFP. “There are several injured, and several dead.”He said the explosion took place at about 1.30am local time (0030 GMT) in a bar called Le Constellation, which is popular with tourists, as revellers rang in the new year.“More than a hundred people were in the building, and we are seeing many injured and many dead,” he said.Rescuers at the site of an explosion that ripped through a bar in Crans-Montana. Photograph: Maxime Schmid/AFP/Getty ImagesSpeaking during a press conference on Thursday morning, Mathias Reynard, president of the canton of Valais, said what should have been a moment of celebration “turned into a nightmare”.Police commander Frédéric Gisler spoke of “several dozen fatalities”, adding that he was “devastated” by the tragedy.Sion hospital said it had admitted several patients but did not specify a number, according to Le Temps. From the scene on Thursday morning, Romaine Morard, a journalist for the newspaper, described “a smell of burning still in the air”.The area has been completely closed off, and a no-fly zone has been imposed over Crans-Montana, police said, adding that the cause of the fire remained unclear.Images published by Swiss media showed a building in flames, and emergency services nearby.A reception centre and helpline have been setup for impacted families, Lathion said.“We’re just at the beginning of our investigation, but this is a internationally renowned ski resort with lots of tourists,” Lathion said.Crans-Montana is a municipality in the district of Sierre in the canton of Valais in Switzerland, 25 miles (40km) north of the Matterhorn.With Agence France-Presse and Associated Press