Belgium To Send Medical Team To Switzerland Following Resort Bar Fire - Foreign Minister

MOSCOW, Jan 2 (Bernama-Sputnik/RIA Novosti) -- Belgium will send a medical team to Switzerland following a fire at the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana and will also treat seven victims, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said, Sputnik/RIA Novosti reported.

"Belgium will act in solidarity with the Swiss authorities in activating the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and will offer to take in five patients with severe trauma (major burns) and two patients requiring mid-care in its hospitals. Tomorrow morning, it will send a support team for the medical teams (one team leader, two doctors and two nurses specialising in major burns)," Prevot said on X on Thursday.

On New Year's Eve, about 1.30 am local time (00:30 GMT), a fire broke out in a bar in the popular Swiss Alpine resort of Crans-Montana. Authorities say all hospitals in the canton of Valais are overwhelmed due to the large number of victims, and patients were also transported to hospitals in Sion, Lausanne, Geneva and Zurich.

On Thursday, Mayor of the Crans-Montana commune Nicolas Feraud said that around 40 people died and another 115 were injured as a result of the fire.

-- BERNAMA-SPUTNIK/RIA NOVOSTI