Pressure is mounting on both local and national Swiss authorities as more details emerge about the tragic fire at a bar on the Crans-Montana ski resort.
Speaking to GB News, Italian Journalist Marco Colombo revealed that the Italian Ambassador to Switzerland Gian Lorenzo Cornado said in a press conference that the safety exit from the bar was essentially "illegal" and "not enough".
Around 47 people are said to have died as a result of the blaze which took place in the early hours of New Year's Day at Le Constellation Bar.
More than 100 people have also been injured in the fire, with many being treated for severe burns.
Sharing further detail, Mr Colombo told GB News: "First of all, the press conference was very informal, it was on the street, and there was a barrier separating the crowd, the media and the venue where the tragedy happened. It was with also with a Swiss official.
"He didn't say much, but at one point he actually said, clearly there's something that went wrong there, and a journalist tackled him and said it was a little bit more than something small, clearly there's something big happening there."
He added "And the Italian ambassador in Switzerland issued a statement to say that the safety exit wasn't enough, that location was illegal.
"So I think Antonio Tajani, the Italian Foreign Secretary, is playing it down a bit, but there's clearly big pressure from the Italian authorities on the Swiss local and national authorities as to why so many young people, as young as 13-years-old, were allowed into such a location. At the moment, 47 are dead, six unaccounted for and 13 are heavily injured in Italian and Swiss hospitals."
Italian Journalist Marco Colombo has shared the latest updates on the Crans-Montana fire
|X / GB NEWS / REUTERS
Discussing the possible cause of the fire, Mr Colombo explained that it may have been a phenomenon called a "flashover".
He said: "What is likely to have happened is a phenomenon called a flashover, which means if you start a fire in such a closed environment with so much oxygen, which clearly was the case of this club at 1:30 in the morning on New Year's Eve, then that generates an explosion.
"So not only the fire, not only the roof and the ceiling made of wood and clearly all the furniture, but it caused the effect of a bomb."
Mr Colombo continued: "Some of the witnesses say they heard a bomb, and some people thought it was a terrorist attack. What happened, in fact, was a tragedy of the combination of oxygen, the flame, and the fact that people were trapped in there."
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Footage from inside the bar showed the moment fire began to spread across the ceiling in a 'flashover' | XSuggesting that the owners of the bar could be held responsible for the tragedy, Mr Colombo told GB News: "Clearly the French couple running the club will have to be held responsible, but also the Swiss authorities that allowed that to happen.
"We see several fathers and mothers say that's the kind of place where my kids used to go every night, and for a New Year's celebration. It was a regular local club where all the posh rich kids of Crans-Montana would go, so that is something that will be taken into account."
Suggesting that legislation may be changed in Switzerland for such venues, he said: "In Italy, I can tell you that that club would be considered illegal and hence shut down.
"Whether this or another location, other resorts will be will be shut down because of this, that has to be seen. But maybe in Switzerland they're not going to have the same legislation."
Mr Colombo told GB News that the six Italians still missing are 'most likely dead'
|GB NEWS
Fearing that the death toll could rise as six people are still regarded missing as a result of the fire, Mr Colombo concluded: "At the moment, they can't identify the dead. So they've counted, unfortunately, 47 bodies.
"There was one this morning, one boy, a professional golf player aged 17, he has been named so far out of the 47. As I was researching and preparing my report online, the family was calling for help saying 'this is what he looks like, please let us know if he's in hospital', and then an hour later, we had to report that that was the first body to be identified.
"There are six that are missing, and the six Italians missing are likely to be dead, because clearly the hospital would have replied to the call, it's now more than 36 hours. And the 13 people seriously wounded, some of the kids have been reporting that they couldn't even touch their friends because they were completely burned.
"So it's likely that out of these 13 people in critically in hospital, some may increase the very sad and sickening death toll count."