Israel teen, two Jewish sisters still missing after deadly Swiss bar fire

Authorities fear for Charlotte Needham, 15, and Diana and Alicia Gunst, 14 and 15.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

An Israeli teenager and two Jewish sisters are among those missing after a fire ripped through a Swiss nightclub on New Year’s Eve, killing at least 40 partygoers and injuring approximately 119 others.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said Charlotte Needham, 15, who holds Israeli, British and French citizenship, has not been heard from since the disaster.

“An embassy team is on site and in continuous communication with local authorities,” the ministry said in a statement. “Israel’s department for citizens abroad and embassy staff are in contact with the family.”

Needham had reportedly been working as a babysitter for guests at the Crans-Montana ski resort in the Swiss Alps, where the Le Constellation bar — the site of the blaze — is located.

Immanuel College, the private British high school she attended, said the community was “praying for a miracle” and called on members to “come together” to support the Needham family “during this difficult time.”

Also unaccounted for are Italian Jewish sisters Diana and Alicia Gunst, ages 14 and 15. Their family has issued numerous pleas on social media, asking that anyone with information contact them immediately.

The scale of the tragedy overwhelmed hospitals across Switzerland, prompting authorities to transfer burn victims to medical centers in Belgium, France, Poland and Germany.

Six of those injured have yet to be identified.

Officials said many of the dead were burned beyond recognition, meaning identification could take days or even weeks using dental records and DNA testing.

“The first objective is to assign names to all the bodies,” Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas Féraud said.

While offering condolences, President Isaac Herzog offered Israel’s help, telling his Swiss counterpart, Guy Parmelin, that particularly since Oct. 7, 2023 – when Hamas-led terrorists used flamethrowers to murder many of their nearly 1,200 victims – Israel has “experience and advanced capabilities in the fields of locating and identifying victims of fires, as well as in the treatment of burn victims.”

The Israeli ZAKA search and rescue organization, which spent months in the Gaza envelope, has already sent a team from its overseas offices to aid in the grisly work of recovering bodies.

Most of the victims were in their teens and twenties and came from across Europe.

The fire broke out around 1:30 a.m. and is believed to have been sparked by sparklers placed in champagne bottles, which ignited the nightclub’s wooden ceiling.

Around 200 people were estimated to have been packed into the popular venue at the time.

Flames spread rapidly, trapping panicked patrons inside the bar, which had both a ground floor and a basement connected by a single stairwell.

“People just suddenly started running and walking on top of each other,” one survivor tearfully told Reuters. “There was an enormous crowd, and this really small entrance, and it was hard to escape.”

Swiss authorities confirmed that the police have opened an investigation of the club’s management, focusing in particular on materials used in recent renovations.