Crans-Montana: A devastating fire at a Swiss Alps bar during New Year’s festivities has left dozens of people presumed dead and approximately 100 others injured, many in critical condition, authorities reported Thursday.

Specific casualty counts were not immediately available following the blaze at Le Constellation, a bar located in the heart of the popular ski region. Beatrice Pilloud, the Attorney General of the Valais Canton, stated that investigators have not yet been able to enter the unstable remains of the building, making it too early to establish a cause for the fire.

According to BBC reports, the Italian foreign ministry, citing Swiss police, said it believed around 40 people had died.

The scale of the disaster quickly exhausted local medical resources. Regional councillor Mathias Rénard noted that the regional hospital’s operating theatres and intensive care units hit full capacity due to the high volume of severely injured victims.

A massive rescue operation involving ambulances and helicopters was deployed to the site to treat victims, who included international tourists. “We are devastated,” Frédéric Gisler, commander of the Valais Cantonal police, said during a news conference.

The tragedy occurred in a municipality that had recently banned New Year’s Eve fireworks via its official website, citing a lack of rainfall over the previous month. With the region currently crowded with skiers, officials have requested that the local population and tourists exercise extreme caution to prevent any further accidents that would require medical attention from already overextended emergency services.

Crans-Montana is a community of 10,000 residents located approximately 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the Matterhorn and 130 kilometres (81 miles) south of Zurich. The municipality sits at a peak elevation of nearly 3,000 meters. According to its website, the town has recently sought to transition its economy from a purely tourist-driven culture toward high-tech research and development.

The current municipality was established exactly nine years ago, on Jan. 1, 2017, through the merger of several smaller towns. Its territory covers 590 hectares (2.3 square miles), stretching from the Rhône Valley to the Plaine Morte glacier.