- Three Jewish people said missing; Herzog offers condolences, notes Israeli experience in dealing with disasters; authorities still identifying victims, cause of fire
President Isaac Herzog spoke with his Swiss counterpart, Guy Parmelin, and offered help after some 40 partygoers were killed and 115 were injured in a blaze at a bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana.
One Israeli emergency services organization is already sending a team to the site of the tragedy.
Herzog’s offer came following the fire early on Thursday at a New Year’s celebration, one of the Alpine nation’s worst tragedies. Beatrice Pilloud, Valais Canton attorney general, said it was too early to determine the cause of the fire. Experts have not yet been able to go inside the wreckage.
“At no moment is there a question of any kind of attack,” Pilloud said.
Herzog’s office said in a statement that the president expressed his condolences to Parmelin on behalf of Israel and told him that Israel was ready to assist in any way it could, as Swiss authorities face the challenging task of identifying the victims.
He told the Swiss president that Israel has both “experience and advanced capabilities” that it has honed over the years, “in the fields of locating and identifying victims of fires, as well as in the treatment of burn victims in fire-related incidents.”
Parmelin thanked Herzog, the president’s office says, and told him that the Swiss Foreign Ministry “has been instructed, if required, to remain in contact with the Embassy of Israel in Switzerland.” Parmelin added that teams from neighboring France and Italy are assisting, Herzog’s office said.
Constellation bar and lounge during a New Year’s celebration in Crans-Montana,
Switzerland, January 1, 2026.
Valais Canton police commander Frédéric Gisler said during a news conference that work is underway to identify the victims and inform their families, adding that the community is “devastated.”
Among those who are missing are three Jewish people, Hebrew media reported. The ZAKA search and rescue organization has dispatched a team from its international branch to assist in recovery efforts.
According to the Chabad Hasidic movement, several members of the local Swiss Jewish community are among the injured.
There are no reports of Israelis having been affected by the fire.
The Crans-Montana resort is best known as an international ski and golf venue. Overnight, its crowded Le Constellation bar morphed from a scene of revelry into the site of tragedy. The country will hold five days of mourning.
Gisler said the priority until further notice would be identifying the victims, and added that “this work will have to take several days.”
during New Year’s Eve celebrations in the Alpine ski resort town of Crans-Montana,
Switzerland, on January 1, 2026.
Meanwhile, hundreds gathered in silence in the freezing night in Crans-Montana on Thursday evening for a vigil. Many of those who came to mourn the tragedy stood, motionless, overlooking the scene. People spoke in whispers, if at all.
“There are dead and injured, and we have someone close to us who is still missing. We have no news of them,” said one woman who did not want to be identified.
After laying flowers with her friend, they walked away, arm in arm.
Pilloud said no one had yet been arrested over the fire.
“An investigation has been opened, not against anyone, but to illuminate the circumstances of this dramatic fire,” the official said.
through a crowded bar during New Year’s Eve celebrations in the Alpine ski resort town
of Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on January 1, 2026.
Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV they were inside when they saw a male bartender lifting a female bartender on his shoulders as she held a lit candle in a bottle. The flames spread, collapsing the wooden ceiling, they told the broadcaster.
One of the women 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.
Another witness speaking to BFMTV described people 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.
The injured were so numerous that the intensive care unit and operating theater at the regional hospital quickly hit full capacity, said Mathias Reynard, head of the regional government of the Valais Canton.
“This evening should have been a moment of celebration and coming together, but it turned into a nightmare,” said Reynard.
BY: The Times Union
