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Crans-Montana fire survivors treated in burns units across Europe

Survivors of the catastrophic bar fire in the upmarket Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana are being cared for in special burns units across Europe, while investigators say many of the dead were so badly burned that it could take days or weeks to identify them. About 40 people were killed and 119 injured when the blaze ripped through a New Year’s Eve celebration in the packed Le Constellation bar and basement nightclub. Investigators believe sparkling candles or sparklers that were put on bottles of champagne and moved too close to the ceiling started the fire. Crans-Montana’s mayor, Nicolas Féraud, said: “The first objective is to assign names to all the bodies.” The Swiss president, Guy Parmelin, called the fire “a calamity of unprecedented, terrifying proportions” as he described the devastating toll. “Behind these figures are faces, names, families, lives brutally cut short, completely interrupted or for ever changed,” Parmelin said at a news conference. So severe were the victims’ burns that Swiss officials said identification work was particularly gruelling. Parents of missing youths issued pleas for news of their loved ones and foreign embassies scrambled to work out if their nationals were among those caught up in one of the worst tragedies to strike modern Switzerland. Mathias Reynard, the head of government of the canton of Valais, said experts were using dental records and DNA samples for the task. “All this work needs to be done because the information is so terrible and sensitive that nothing can be told to the families unless we are 100% sure,” he said. Despite having one of the world’s most advanced medical systems, Switzerland’s regional clinics quickly reached capacity in the hours after the blaze. More than 30 people were taken to hospitals with specialised burns units in Zurich and Lausanne and six were taken to Geneva, according to a Swiss news agency. Many more of the injured were transported to other countries including Belgium, France, Poland and Germany, while the EU said it had been in contact with Swiss authorities about providing medical assistance. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on X he had offered his country’s help as clinics in Paris and Lyon took in patients, while Sweden and North Macedonia also said they had hospital beds available. The Valais police chief, Frédéric Gisler, said that of the 119 injured people, 113 had been formally identified while six others were as yet unknown. Among the injured are 71 Swiss, 14 French citizens, 11 Italians, four Serbs, as well as one person each from Bosnia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland and Portugal. The nationalities of 14 of the injured have not yet been confirmed. Italy and France are among the countries that have said some of their nationals are missing. Australia has said one of its nationals was injured. An Instagram account provided a central resource for families and friends to seek information about the whereabouts of those not heard from since Thursday. By Friday afternoon more than 40 pictures had been posted. Paulo Martins, a French citizen who has lived in the area around Crans-Montana for 24 years, said his son and his girlfriend narrowly missed being in the bar at the time of the fire. “When he came home he was really in shock,” Martins told Agence France-Presse. A friend of his 17-year-old son had been transferred for treatment in Germany with his body 30% covered in burns, Martins said. Eleonore, 17, started the year with a frantic search for friends who have been missing since the fire. Standing outside the bar, now shielded by white tarpaulins and a wall of temporary barriers, she said she had not had contact with them since New Year’s Eve. “We took loads of photos [and] we put them on Instagram, Facebook, every social network possible to try to find them,” she told AFP. “But there’s nothing. No response. We called the parents. Nothing. Even the parents don’t know.” She and a friend managed to get news that one friend was in a coma in a hospital in Lausanne. The head of the city’s university hospital, Claire Charmet, said it was treating 22 badly burned patients, most ranging in age from 16 to 26. “Patients are being stabilised and transferred to the operating theatre or to specialised beds,” she told the local newspaper 24 heures on Thursday. “We need to be aware that the treatment will be long and intense, lasting several weeks or even months.” Eric Bonvin, the general director of the regional hospital in Sion, said it took in several dozen injured people whose average age was about 20. He recounted how staff were aided by colleagues who had not been scheduled to work but rushed in to lend a hand. He expressed hope that the survivors’ youth would speed their recovery: “They are young and that means they still have a lot of vitality,” he told the Associated Press. Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Maduro urges Trump to abandon ‘illegal warmongering’ and start ‘serious talks’

The Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, has urged Donald Trump to abandon his “illegal warmongering” and begin “serious talks” with his administration as mystery continued to surround a purported pre-Christmas CIA airstrike on the South American country. Speaking during an hour-long TV interview, Maduro declined to confirm reports of the apparent US attack, which would be the first on Venezuelan soil since Trump began his five-month campaign of military pressure in August. “This could be something we talk about in a few days,” Maduro told the Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet as the Venezuelan leader drove through the streets of Caracas in an apparent attempt to project serenity in the face of US pressure. At one point during what Maduro called the “pod car” broadcast, he drove the silver SUV past his childhood home and the church where his baptism and first communion were held. “Caracas looks so beautiful,” Maduro declared, urging US voters to reflect on whether they wanted Trump to lead them into a South American version of the Iraq war. Maduro rejected US claims justifying Trump’s campaign that he was the head of a “narco-terrorist” crime organisation flooding the US with drugs. He said he believed Washington’s true objective was to seize control of Venezuelan resources including oil, gold and rare-earth metals. “Since they can’t accuse me or accuse Venezuela of having weapons of mass destruction … since they can’t accuse us of having nuclear missiles … or chemical weapons … they have invented a claim that the US knows is as false as the claim about weapons of mass destruction that led them into a forever war,” Maduro said. “I believe that we need to set all this aside and start serious talks. “The US government knows … that if they want to seriously discuss an agreement to combat drug trafficking, we’re ready. If they want oil, Venezuela is ready for US investment, like with Chevron, whenever they want it, wherever they want it and however they want it.” The New York Times reported last month that Maduro had responded to Trump’s pressure campaign by regularly sleeping in different locations and switching mobile phones so as to avoid being captured by US special forces or killed in an aerial attack. Asked what impact Trump’s pressure campaign was having on his physical and emotional state, however, Maduro struck a nonchalant tone. “I have a foolproof bunker: almighty God,” he replied. “I have entrusted Venezuela to our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings.” Maduro’s pre-recorded interview came after Trump said on Monday that the US had hit a docking facility that served Venezuelan drug trafficking boats last month. US media reports have claimed the CIA was behind the drone strike. If confirmed, the first strike on land would mark a new phase in a campaign that has involved the deployment of a huge US naval fleet, airstrikes on alleged drug traffickers and a “total blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers, the seizure of two vessels and the pursuit of a third. Maduro said he had not spoken to Trump since a 10-minute conversation on 21 November, which he called cordial and respectful. “That conversation was enjoyable even, but since then the evolution has not been enjoyable,” he said, calling for “dialogue and diplomacy” between Washington and Caracas. The interview was recorded on New Year’s Eve, the same day the US military announced strikes against five alleged drug-smuggling boats. The latest attacks bring the total number of known boat strikes to 35 and the number of people killed to at least 115, according to Trump administration figures. Venezuelans are among the victims. Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the US and asserted that Washington is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. The strikes began off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast and later expanded to the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Real estate agents under the microscope in Australian-first privacy ‘compliance sweep’

Real estate agencies who ask for phone numbers at open houses, car dealerships that keep driver licences on file, and pubs and bars that scan IDs for entry will be targeted by the privacy regulator in its first “compliance sweep” of dozens of businesses. The crackdown by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner could see businesses fined up to $66,000 if their privacy policies fail to meet legal standards. The commissioner, Elizabeth Tydd, said there was often a “power asymmetry” when a company confronted customers with in-person requests for personal information, which people feel unable to refuse. The agency’s privacy commissioner, Carly Kind, said such situations can make customers vulnerable to overcollection of personal information and creates risks to their security and privacy. Some companies then put customers at risk by holding their personal information for much longer than was necessary. Sign up: AU Breaking News email “When that happens, it creates additional privacy risks; for example, cybersecurity risks where personal information can be harvested,” Tydd told ABC News on Friday. Companies targeted by the sweep will have to demonstrate their policies clearly detail how and why they store customer data, including how long it is stored and if it is sent overseas. The OAIC will inspect 60 businesses across six high-risk sectors throughout January, where customers are asked for personal details during short, urgent transactions, Tydd said. They will include: Rental and property inspections. Chemists and pharmacists who collect information for paperless receipts and medication provision. Licensed venues that collect ID’s for entry. Pawnshops and secondhand dealers, and Car rental companies and car dealerships that collect personal data for rentals or test drives. James Voortman, chief executive of the Australian Automotive Dealer Association, said cybercriminals had targeted dealerships in pursuit of their customer data, resulting in numerous data breaches in recent years. “Customers can take comfort in the fact that new car dealerships have spent a great deal of time, money and effort to effectively protect the data,” Voortman said. Real estate agencies have been criticised for unnecessary collection and storage of personal information, with some agents requesting tenants share 12 months’ worth of bank statements, personal social media profiles and details about their tattoos. Franchises of real estate agents Harcourts and LJ Hooker were hit by data breaches in 2022 but the industry has previously pushed back against tighter rules on data protection. The New South Wales government in July moved to limit data gathering after estimating real estate agencies collected about 187,000 pieces of identification information each week. Stacey Holt, risk adviser and chief executive of Real Estate Excellence, said agencies were more likely to accept applications when prospective tenants allowed them to collect and store more data. “Most people, because they’re desperate for a home, are doing all the things they can do to make them look good,” Holt said. Real estate agencies kept tenant details and identification on file to meet landlords’ insurance obligations and to serve clients effectively, Holt said. Open home attenders’ details may be kept to contact potential homebuyers for marketing, or less often in case of theft. Holt said most businesses she worked with would delete data when it was no longer necessary. Breaches were more likely to be observed among agencies reusing generic privacy policies borrowed from other websites or by franchisees from brands, she said. Larger businesses with more customers would be targeted but the review could also check on small franchisees of big national brands in sectors such as real estate, an OAIC spokesperson said. Some targeted businesses could be caught unawares when they resumed trading after a holiday shutdown, Holt said, since the sweep was announced during the busy mid-December period. The commissioner on Friday said businesses would likely have strengthened their privacy policies in anticipation of the crackdown.

Swiss ski resort fire: it could take days to identify all victims, investigators say

Investigators have said it could take days to name all of the victims who died in the fire that tore through a crowded bar in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana, as images and witness accounts emerged suggesting the room’s ceiling was a key factor in the blaze. About 40 people were killed in the fire that engulfed the town’s Le Constellation bar, which was packed with mainly young revellers celebrating the new year, and about 115 others injured, many of them reportedly in a life-threatening condition. Officials said it was too early to determine the exact cause of the blaze, but attention has focused increasingly on the ceiling of the bar’s basement, which witnesses and phone images suggest may have been set alight by sparklers or flares. One image circulating online appears to show the ceiling – apparently clad in foam soundproofing panels – on fire as the sparklers were held aloft attached to champagne bottles. Another shows a woman holding a sparkler while sitting on someone’s shoulders. The head of the Valais regional government, Mathias Reynard, said experts were using dental and DNA samples in the “terrible and sensitive” task of identifying the badly burned bodies. “Nothing can be told to the families unless we are 100% sure,” he said. The Valais public prosecutor, Béatrice Pilloud, said significant resources had been put in place to identify the victims and return the bodies to families as quickly as possible. The canton’s police chief, Frédéric Gisler, said the process could take several days. Stéphane Ganzer, a regional health and safety official, told RTL radio that several of the injured had not yet been identified, either because they were not carrying ID or because it had been lost in the fire.. “I think a large number of the injured, maybe between 80 and 100, are in a life-threatening condition,” he said on Friday. “When 15% or more of an adult’s body has third-degree burns, there is a risk of death in the days and hours that follow.” The victims are believed to be of many nationalities. Emanuele Galeppini, a 16-year-old international golfer from Italy who lived in Dubai, was named on Friday as the first of several possible Italian victims to be identified. Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, who visited Crans-Montana on Friday, said 13 Italian nationals were in hospital, five of them having suffered “severe injuries and burns”, while six were missing. France’s foreign ministry has said nine French nationals were among the injured and eight were missing. Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, told Italian media that 47 people had been killed in the blaze, but Ganzer said on Friday he was surprised by that figure. “This is not the same number that we have,” he told RTL radio. Pope Leo sent a message to the bishop of Sion to express his “compassion and solicitude” and pray that “the Lord will welcome the deceased into His abode of peace and light, and sustain the courage of those who suffer in their hearts or in their bodies”. The EU said it had been in contact with Swiss authorities about providing medical assistance. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said some of the injured were being cared for in French hospitals. Others were taken to hospital in Germany and Poland. Several witness accounts reported by the Swiss, French and Italian media said restaurant staff had held sparklers mounted on champagne bottles high 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”, one witness, Axel, told the Italian media outlet Local Team. Pilloud said investigators would be examining whether the bar had met safety standards. Ganzer said the images on social media “seem fairly clear”. He said the ceiling of the basement appeared to have been “covered with sound insulation material”, adding that the investigation would determine whether that was “appropriate” and safe. A Swiss corporate security and fire expert, Markus Knorr, told the Swiss outlet 20 Minutes that the foam panels “burn fast and burst into flames” unless they have been properly fireproofed, meaning fire can “spread extremely fast, because they are mounted horizontally”. Concerns have also been raised about the number of exits from the bar’s basement, which was used for special events and reportedly accessible from the ground floor only by a single staircase described by several survivors as narrow. A representative of the French nightclub owners’ association told BFMTV that in France, any room that could hold 20 people or more was required to have at least two exits. According to its website, Le Constellation can host up to 300 people. French media, citing the local property register, have reported that the bar was owned by two French nationals, Jacques and Jessica Moretti, who bought it in 2015 and also owned a hamburger restaurant in Crans-Montana as well as a third establishment in a nearby village. A friend of the couple, who are originally from Corsica and arrived in the area in the early 2000s, said Jessica Moretti, who was in the bar when the fire broke out, had been burned on the arm. Her husband was reportedly not on the premises. Both have since been unreachable. Residents of Crans-Montana, many of whom knew victims, have been stunned by the disaster. Hundreds of people stood in silence near the scene as they came to pay their respects to the dead and injured on Thursday night. The mound of floral tributes outside Le Constellation continued to grow on Friday. “Rest in peace among the stars,” one of the messages read. “I woke up to a loud bang at about 1.30am but then it went silent,” said François, who did not want to give his surname. “I fell back to sleep and then saw the news in the morning. It seems that so many young people have lost their lives. We’ve never experienced anything like this.” Arlino Marchese and his friend Sacha Dimic, from the nearby town of Sierre, were in Crans-Montana to ski on Friday. “We used to go to Le Constellation a lot when we were younger,” said Dimic. “It was a good bar, with a good atmosphere and really popular. All those lives gone, it’s terrible.” “They were people like us,” said Piermarco Pani, an 18-year-old who, like many others in the town, knew the bar well. Dozens of people left flowers or lit candles on a makeshift altar at the top of the road leading to the bar, which police had cordoned off. Elisa Sousa, 17, told Reuters she was meant to have been at Le Constellation on Thursday night but had spent the evening at a family gathering instead. “I’ll need to thank my mother a hundred times for not letting me go,” she said at the vigil. The Swiss president, Guy Parmelin, who visited the mountain resort on Thursday, said the country would hold five days of mourning to mark what he described as one of the most traumatic events in its history.

Iranian officials warn Trump not to cross ‘red line’ over threats to intervene in protests

Donald Trump has threatened to intervene in Iran if its government kills demonstrators, prompting warnings from senior Iranian officials that any American interference would cross a “red line”. In a social media post on Friday, Trump said that if Iran were to shoot and kill protesters, the US would “come to their rescue”. He added “we are locked and loaded, and ready to go”, without explaining what that might mean in practice. Protests in Iran are now in their sixth day, and are the largest since 2022, when the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini triggered demonstrations across the country. The current unrest was triggered by an unprecedented decline in the national currency on Sunday, with the Iranian rial dropping to about 1.4m to the US dollar, further exacerbating an already beleaguered economy. Seven people have been killed, including a volunteer for the Basij security force, and videos have shown security forces carrying shotguns, with the sound of shooting in the background. In response to Trump’s threat of intervention, Ali Shamkhani, adviser to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, warned that Iran’s national security was a “red line, not material for adventurist tweets”. “Any intervening hand nearing Iran security on pretexts will be cut off with a regret-inducing response,” Shamkhani said in a post on X. The threats come just days after Trump said that the US could strike Iran if it was found to be rebuilding its nuclear programme, further escalating tensions between the two countries. Another senior Iranian official, Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council, accused the US and Israel of having a hand in the demonstrations in Iran, a common refrain by officials in response to protests. “Trump must realize that US intervention in this domestic matter will lead to destabilisation of the whole region and the destruction of American interests,” Larijani wrote on X. “The American people must know that Trump is the one that started this adventure, and they should pay attention to the safety of their soldiers.” Iran has threatened to target American soldiers stationed in the Middle East in the past, and in June it attacked Al-Udeid airbase in Qatar after the US struck Iranian nuclear enrichment sites. The current protests have taken place in Tehran but have also spread to other cities, such as Isfahan in central Iran. Shopkeepers have closed their stores in protest and students have taken over campuses to express their grievances. Though economic conditions are the central grievance, demonstrators have also chanted anti-government slogans and decried what they said was corruption and mismanagement by the government. The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, initially invited protest leaders for talks, taking a less confrontational approach than authorities did in the 2022 protests, which they violently suppressed. Pezeshkian said that he had instructed the government to listen to the protesters “legitimate demands”. The recent deaths of demonstrators, however, could signal that authorities are taking a harder line against protests as they continue. A statement from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps on Monday warned that it would take a harsh line against any foreign interference or “sedition” in the country. As Iranian authorities grapple with protests at home, it has tried to stave off accusations from the US that it is reconstituting its nuclear programme. Iran has said that it is no longer enriching uranium anywhere in the country and has signaled it is open for negotiations with the west.

China threatened to cancel key trade talks after UK minister’s Taiwan visit in June

China threatened to cancel high-level trade talks with the UK earlier this year over a government minister’s visit to Taiwan, the Guardian can disclose. Beijing told the British government it would pull its first trade and economic dialogue with the UK in seven years after Douglas Alexander, then a trade minister, travelled to Taipei in late June. The engagement threatened to scupper the UK-China trade and economic commission (Jetco), which ultimately did go ahead after diplomats privately scrambled to contain the diplomatic fallout with Beijing. Peter Kyle flew to China for the meeting in early September, days after he was appointed business and trade secretary. China’s threat to cancel the talks, according to two well-placed UK sources briefed on the discussions, came after Alexander visited Taipei on 29 and 30 June and met the Taiwanese president, Lai Ching-te. During the visit, which received little media attention in the UK, Alexander, now secretary of state for Scotland, held talks with his Taiwanese counterpart, Cynthia Kiang, and pledged to boost trade in key sectors. Beijing is extremely sensitive about other countries’ engagement with Taiwan, which it views as a breakaway province that will eventually come under its control. There are fears it will eventually try to annex the island by force. Taiwan has never been ruled by the People’s Republic of China and has its own constitution. Its population has grown increasingly opposed to China’s claims of sovereignty over it, electing a succession of leaders who have pledged to uphold its self-governing status. The Guardian disclosed last year that the Foreign Office had intervened to postpone a planned visit by the former Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen because it coincided with David Lammy’s first trip to China as foreign secretary. The Chinese government strongly condemned a visit to Taiwan by a Labour party parliamentary delegation in the spring of 2024, while the party was still in opposition. The UK does not recognise Taiwan as a country but has a longstanding unofficial relationship with its government, including via ministerial talks, which have been held since 1991. Bilateral trade between the UK and Taiwan was worth £9.3bn last year. British warships have taken part in operations in the waters around Taiwan in recent years, which has angered China. Meanwhile ministers have come under pressure from opposition parties and campaigners over their diplomatic rapprochement with Beijing. The government is preparing to approve controversial plans to build a Chinese super-embassy near Tower Bridge in London after receiving the green light from the security services. Keir Starmer is planning to travel to Beijing for his first bilateral visit in late January. Critics have argued that the embassy presents a security risk. UK intelligence agencies have repeatedly warned of large-scale Chinese espionage targeting government, industry and academia. Downing Street has argued that consolidating all of China’s diplomatic presence in London into one building will have a security benefit. A government spokesperson said: “We continue to engage with China in areas of trade that benefit our national interests. Our longstanding position on Taiwan has not changed and this visit was within the expected and longstanding bounds of our relationship. “We continue to explore a range of opportunities to further enhance our trade relations and support economic growth as part of our objective to strengthen bilateral trade and investment between the UK and Taiwan.” The business department said the Jetco talks that took place in September would help secure £1bn in market access deals for the UK over five years. It was the first set of such talks since 2018, when diplomatic relations with China began to deteriorate and dialogue became more difficult because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sewage in drinking water blamed for at least 10 deaths in India’s ‘cleanest city’

Sewage-contaminated drinking water is being blamed for killing at least 10 people, including a baby boy, and sending more than 270 others to hospital in Indore, ranked India’s “cleanest city” for the last eight years. Residents of a congested, lower-income neighbourhood in Indore, Madhya Pradesh’s commercial capital, had been warning authorities for months about foul-smelling tap water. Their complaints went unheeded, despite the city’s much-lauded ranking for waste segregation and other cleanliness measures. “I have received information about 10 deaths due to a diarrhoea outbreak caused by contaminated water in the Bhagirathpura area,” said Indore’s mayor, Pushyamitra Bhargava. Sewage was mixing “in the main line leading from the water tank”, he added. Local media reported that the death toll had climbed to 15, but there was no official confirmation. At least 32 patients remain in intensive care units. Beyond those hospitalised, the state’s chief minister, Mohan Yadav, said health teams conducting door-to-door visits identified 2,456 “suspected patients”, who were given first aid “on the spot”. Authorities say a public toilet constructed above a drinking water pipeline appears to have allowed sewage to seep into the supply. The toilet was built without a septic tank. Residents began streaming into hospitals earlier this week, complaining of vomiting, diarrhoea and high fever. Water tests “confirmed the presence of abnormal bacteria generally found in sewer water comprising human waste”, a medical official said. Residents said their complaints about the water had run into a bureaucratic maze of red tape. “Prima facie, this case falls under gross dereliction of duty,” said an Indore municipal councillor, Kamal Waghela. Several municipal officials have been suspended pending an investigation. The five-month-old infant who died had been bottle-fed using tap water, his father, Sunil Sahu, told reporters. “No one told us the water was contaminated. We filtered it. The same water was flowing throughout the neighbourhood. There was no warning,” he said. An editorial in the Hindu called for “better enforcement of water guidelines and other environmental laws at all levels”. The newspaper noted that toxic air pollution, which blankets many cities, was already “wreaking havoc on citizens’ health” and said what happened in Madhya Pradesh should serve as “a wake-up call for India’s water management”. The opposition Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi, accused the Bharatiya Janata party-led state government of negligence, saying “clean water isn’t a favour – it’s a right to life”. The government said new rules would be framed to prevent similar incidents. “No stone will be left unturned to make sure it does not happen again,” Yadav said. The Indore crisis comes amid broader concerns over water safety nationwide. The Times of India reported that only 8% of public water-testing laboratories run by the Delhi government were accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories, which certifies facilities meeting international quality-control standards. Nationwide, 59% of public labs are now accredited. Experts warn that as India’s urban population grows rapidly, lapses in water testing heighten the risk of disease outbreaks.