Geneva — Around 40 people died and more than 100 were injured in a bar fire in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana during New Year's celebrations, police said on Thursday, as the country struggled to grasp the scale of the tragedy.

Axel Clavier felt like he was suffocating inside the Swiss Alpine bar where moments before he’d been ringing in the new year with friends and dozens of other revelers.

But about 40 other partygoers died, including one of Clavier’s friends, falling victim to one of the worst tragedies in Switzerland’s history.