Dozens of people are feared to have been killed and around 100 injured after an explosion tore through a crowded bar during a New Year’s Eve party in the upscale ski resort of Crans-Swiss police said on Thursday.

The Italian foreign ministry said information from Swiss police indicated about 40 deaths, but police would not be more specific than “tens” at a press conference on the incident, Reuters reported.

The fire broke out at 1.30 a.m. (0030 GMT) in a bar called “Le Constellation” in the resort in southwestern Switzerland.

Some of the victims are from other countries, said Stephane Ganzer, head of security for the Valais canton. Authorities said 10 helicopters and 40 ambulances had been mobilised.

Police had earlier said many people were being treated for burns. Most of those injured were in a serious condition, said Mathias Reynard, head of the cantonal government. Valais hospital intensive care unit was full and patients being transferred elsewhere, he said.

The area has been completely closed off, and a no-fly zone has been imposed over Crans-Montana, police said in a statement, adding that the cause of the blast remained unclear.

The explosion was being considered a fire and not an attack, prosecutor Béatrice Pilloud said later, adding that authorities were trying to get the bodies of the victims to their families.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his New Year address to the nation, said late on Wednesday that Ukraine wanted the war to end, but not at any cost, adding he would not sign a “weak” peace agreement that would only prolong the war.

Seated in his office, with a festive tree in the background, Zelenskiy said Ukrainians were exhausted from nearly four years of war — longer than the German World War Two occupation of many Ukrainian cities. But they were not prepared to give up, Reuters reported.

“What does Ukraine want? Peace? Yes. At any cost? No. We want an end to the war but not the end of Ukraine,” Zelenskiy, wearing a dark green embroidered Ukrainian shirt, said in the 21-minute address issued just before midnight.

“Are we tired? Very. Does this mean we are ready to surrender? Anyone who thinks so is deeply mistaken.”

Zelenskiy said any signature “placed on weak agreements only fuel the war.”

“My signature will be placed on a strong agreement. And that is exactly what every meeting, every phone call, every decision is about now,” he said. “To secure a strong peace for everyone, not for a day, a week or two months, but peace for years.”

Zelenskiy said weeks of U.S.-led diplomacy, including his talks last weekend with U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida, had produced a peace deal that was nearly ready.

“A peace agreement is 90% ready, 10% remains,” he said. “That 10% contains everything, it is the 10% that will determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe and how people will live.”

The main stumbling block to completing a deal is the issue of who will control what parts of Ukraine’s territory.

Russia holds about 19% of Ukraine’s territory in the south and east, but Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from parts of the eastern Donbas region that Moscow’s forces have failed to capture.

Kyiv wants the map frozen at the current battle lines, and Zelenskiy dismissed as “deception” Russian demands for a complete withdrawal from Donbas.

“Does anyone still believe them? Unfortunately, yes,” he said. “Because too often the truth is avoided and called diplomacy when in fact it is simply lies dressed up in business suits.”

As Wednesday turned to Thursday, people around the world said goodbye to a sometimes challenging 2025 and expressed hopes for the New Year to come, Reuters reported.

Midnight arrived first on the islands closest to the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean, including Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Tonga and New Zealand.

FIREWORKS LIGHT UP SYDNEY

In Australia, Sydney began 2026 with a spectacular fireworks display, as per tradition. Some 40,000 pyrotechnic effects stretched 7 km (over 4 miles) across buildings and barges in its harbour and featured a waterfall effect from the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

This year, it was held under an enhanced police presence, weeks after gunmen killed 15 people at a Jewish event in the city.

Organizers held a minute’s silence at 11 p.m. local time for the victims of the attack, with the Harbour Bridge lit up in white and a menorah – a symbol of Judaism – projected onto its pylons.

“After a tragic end to the year for our city, we hope that New Year’s Eve will provide an opportunity to come together and look with hope for a peaceful and happy 2026,” Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore said ahead of the event.

In Seoul, thousands gathered at the Bosingak bell pavilion, where a bronze bell was struck 33 times at midnight – a tradition rooted in Buddhist cosmology, symbolizing the 33 heavens. The chimes are believed to dispel misfortune and welcome peace and prosperity for the year ahead, read the report.

DRUMS AT THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

An hour to the west, there were celebrations and a drum performance at the Juyong Pass, at the Great Wall of China just outside Beijing. Revellers wore headgear and waved boards emblazoned with “2026” and the symbol of a horse. February will mark the arrival of the Year of the Horse on the Chinese lunar calendar.

In Hong Kong, the annual New Year’s fireworks display was called off after the apartment complex blaze in November that killed 161 people. Instead, a light show with the theme of ‘New hopes, new beginnings’ transformed facades in the Central district.

In Croatia, celebrations got off to an early start. Since 2000, the town of Fuzine has held its countdown at noon, a tradition that has since spread across the country. Crowds cheered, toasted each other with champagne and danced to music – all in the middle of the day. Some brave souls in Santa hats took a plunge into the icy waters of Lake Bajer.

BRAZIL LOOKS TO BREAK RECORD

On Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro – locals welcomed in the New Year in warmer weather with a music and fireworks party known as “Reveillon.” Organizers were hoping to beat their 2024 Guinness World Record for the biggest New Year’s Eve celebration.

Elsewhere, preparations got under way for the more traditional midnight toast. In subzero temperatures in New York, organizers began putting up security barriers and stages ahead of the crowds that will flock to Times Square for the annual ball drop.

Greece’s ancient Parthenon Temple on the Acropolis had a quiet New Year. The mayor of Athens said silent, environmentally friendly fireworks were used, citing distress caused by loud displays to pets, animals and some people.

In snowy Kyiv and Moscow, both Ukrainians and Russians saw in the New Year, expressing hopes of peace after nearly four years of conflict, Reuters reported.

“I wish for the war to end, I think that this is the main and most important topic for our country,” said a woman in central Moscow who gave her name only as Larisa and said she had traveled from distant Altai Krai to see the Russian capital in the winter holidays with her family.

Many Ukrainians lamented that peace still seemed a distant prospect.

But wrapped up warm and visiting a Christmas tree set up in front of Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, nine-year-old Olesia was more optimistic.

“I think there will be peace in the New Year,” she said.