Teenagers Eleonore and Elisa started the year with a frantic search for friends who have been missing since a deadly fire tore through a bar in a neighbouring Swiss town.
"Are they OK? Are they just at the hospital?" one of the 17-year-olds says.
They have not heard from them since a blaze ripped through a New Year's celebration in the luxury resort town of Crans-Montana, turning what should have been a night of revelry into tragedy.
Read moreWhat to know about the deadly NYE fire in a Swiss resort town
Police estimate around 40 people have been killed and about 115 injured, many of them young visitors to the Swiss Alps.
Swiss police warned it could take days or even weeks to identify everyone who perished, an agonising wait for family and friends.
The exact number of people who were at the bar when it went up in flames remains unclear, and police have not specified how many are still missing.
Le Constellation had a capacity of 300 people, plus another 40 people on its terrace, according to the Crans-Montana website.
'Even the parents don't know'
Relatives and friends have been scrambling to find their loved ones, with many circulating photos on social media.
"We tried to reach them; some of their locations are still showing here," said one of the teenagers from Valais, nodding at the bar now shielded by opaque white tarpaulins and behind a wall of temporary barriers.
"We took loads of photos (and) we put them on Instagram, Facebook, every social network possible to try to find them," Eleonore said.
"But there's nothing. No response. We called the parents. Nothing. Even the parents don't know," she added.
They managed to get news that one friend was in a coma in a hospital in the city of Lausanne.
Candles are left at a memorial for victims outside the "Le Constellation" bar, after a fire during a New Year's Eve party where dozens of people died and scores more were injured in the upscale ski resort of Crans-Montana in southwestern Switzerland, January 2, 2026. © Stéphanie Lecocq, Reuters
More than 30 victims were taken to hospitals with specialised burns units in Zurich and Lausanne, and six were taken to Geneva, according to a Swiss news agency.
A few hundred metres from the remnants of the burned bar, the nearby convention centre has been turned into a crisis unit.
Away from the press and guarded by police, families of the victims are received and offered assistance by authorities, diplomats and chaplains.
'Nightmare'
Authorities have declined to speculate on what caused the tragedy, saying only that it was not an attack.
Several witness accounts, broadcast by Swiss, French and Italian media, pointed to sparklers apparently mounted on champagne bottles and held aloft by restaurant staff as part of a regular "show" for patrons who made special orders to their tables.
There were "waitresses with champagne bottles and little sparklers. They got too close to the ceiling, and suddenly it all caught fire", Axel, a witness, told the Italian media outlet Local Team.
Commander of the Rescue and Fire Department at ACCM David Vocat leaves a teddy bear outside the "Le Constellation" bar in the upscale ski resort of Crans-Montana in southwestern Switzerland, January 1, 2026. © Stéphanie Lecocq, Reuters
Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who took over on Thursday, called the fire "a calamity of unprecedented, terrifying proportions", and announced that flags would be flown at half mast for five days.
"Behind these figures are faces, names, families, lives brutally cut short, completely interrupted, or forever changed," Parmelin said at a press conference.
"Given the international nature of the Crans resort, we can expect foreign nationals to be among the victims," local police commander Frédéric Gisler said.
The French foreign ministry said nine French citizens figured among the injured, and eight others remained unaccounted for.
Nathan, a 19-year-old who was in the bar just before it caught fire, told AFP he keeps expecting to wake up from the "nightmare".
"It feels like ... I'm going to wake up tomorrow and get all my loved ones back who sadly died in this incident," he said.
"Normally a new year is full of happiness, but unfortunately, this has happened."
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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