Dozens of people were killed when a fire ripped through a crowded bar in the luxury Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana as young revellers rang in the new year, police said Thursday.

"We count around 40 people who have died and around 115 injured, most of them seriously," Frederic Gisler, police commander in the Wallis canton in southwestern Switzerland, told reporters, as Swiss President Guy Parmelin described the fire as "one of the worst tragedies that our country has experienced".