The brother of a 15-year-old girl who remains missing after the New Year’s Eve fire in Switzerland has revealed the heartbreaking search for her.
Romain Kallergis spent hours searching for his sister Alice, 15, who was on her first ever night out at Le Constellation in Crans-Montana.
But a fire, believed to have been started by champagne sparklers, spread through the building, killing at least 47 people and injuring more than 100 others.
The siblings, from Switzerland, who had skied at the resort ‘all of their lives’, spent most of New Year’s Eve together before separating to go to different clubs.
But before Alice met up with two of her friends, the brother and sister took a picture together celebrating the New Year.
Romain, 19, told Metro: ‘She was in her last year of obligatory school and was a great skier. She was never really one to go on nights out so this was a first for her.
‘We stayed together until about 1am when she wanted to go to Le Constellation with some of her friends. I ended up at a nearby club and left to go say hi to her.
‘But when I got there, there were hundreds of people on the street and I saw all of the smoke coming from the building.’
Romain ducked beneath one of the barriers to see if he could find his sister but was held back by a police officer.
Instead, he went to a bar next door which stayed open for the families and friends of people feared to be inside La Constellation at the time of the fire.
‘I tried calling her and calling her, but got no answer,’ he said.
Romain had to call his parents at around 3am to let them know their daughter was missing, with their dad having to fly in from Greece.
But the family still do not have any answers as to what has happened.
‘All the family are here now, and we have called very hospital, but no one has any information. But we are not alone, loads of people are in the same situation,’ Romain said.
‘And my friend has just learned her sister passed away.’
The dad of Romain’s ex-girlfriend drove him round the entire ski village and beyond to see if they could spot Alice the night of the fire.
And it wasn’t until 10am the next morning Romain returned to his home to rest.
Many of those missing are children
Authorities have warned that naming the victims or even establishing a definitive death toll would take time because many of the bodies were badly burned.
Crans-Montana’s mayor Nicolas Feraud told a press conference: ‘The first objective is to assign names to all the bodies.’
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