Around 40 people killed and 115 injured in New Year fire at Swiss bar
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 1 January 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The President of Switzerland says the fire at a ski resort early on New Year's Day which killed around 40 people is one of his country's worst tragedies. Witnesses at the bar in the ski resort of Crans Montana say the entire ceiling was ablaze within seconds.
Also in the programme: There have clashes in a number of small towns across Iran, on the fifth day of anti-government protests; China has introduced a series of tax incentives - including levies on contraceptives and exemptions for childcare - to try to boost its falling birth rate; and new tax regulations are taking effect today in forty-eight countries over the personal ownership of cryptocurrency.
Plus punk rock is 50 years old this year. Why does this rather simple music keep influencing musicians even now?
(Photo: Officials say around 40 people were killed and 115 injured in the fire. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.8 | Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service coming live from London. |
| 0:14.0 | This is Owen Bennett Jones, and we begin with Les Constellation. |
| 0:18.3 | It's in the Swisky Resort of Cromontana, a bar, one of those bars that tends to |
| 0:23.7 | attract the young away from home on holiday, excited to be out, and especially so on New Year's Eve. |
| 0:30.7 | So there will be many families with great grief today after the death of around 40 people |
| 0:35.9 | in a fire that ripped through that bar. |
| 0:38.7 | More than 100 have been injured, many with severe burns. |
| 0:43.1 | A video posted online from inside the bar shows the beginning of the fire. |
| 0:47.6 | Music still blaring out, but the ceiling ablaze. |
| 0:57.8 | In the world, the ceiling ablaze. It got worse quickly, |
| 0:59.4 | another video shows panic people fleeing the building. |
| 1:06.1 | Wish! |
| 1:06.9 | They're going to be crammy, he'll be to die. |
| 1:10.0 | Some did get out lucky ones, here are two of them. |
| 1:16.1 | I thought it was just fireworks like they do on the 31st. |
| 1:20.2 | But people were screaming a lot. |
| 1:22.2 | There was panic. |
| 1:23.3 | We went onto the terrace, and then we really saw people screaming. |
| 1:29.0 | There was smoke in the elevator. |
| 1:31.4 | With the help of the concierge, I crossed the balcony to the fifth floor |
| 1:35.1 | and went to the Etois Hotel. |
... |
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