A footballer caught up in the deadly fire at a Swiss nightclub has burns covering 30 per cent of his body has made his first public appearance since the incident, alongside his girlfriend, who he saved from the blaze.
The fire at the Le Constellation nightclub, located in the ski resort town of Crans-Montana, killed at least 41 people , with 115 injured and 83 initially treated for severe burns.
In a statement, French football club FC Metz announced that their youth team player Tahirys Dos Santos, 19, was among those to have been injured, and it is understood he ran back into the blaze to save his girlfriend, Coline.
Coline was ultimately saved, and the couple stepped out for the first time since the incident as they presented an award at the UNFP Awards in Paris.
Wearing matching black outfits, the couple showed off their scars, including from burns on their hands and down their arms.
The audience applauded as they made their entrance to the stage, with the couple presenting France’s female Player of the year award to Melchie Dumoray.
Footballer Tahirys Dos Santos (left) and girlfriend Coline (right) have shown off their scars after being caught in the Le Constellation nightclub fire
Scars on the duo were visible, with Dos Santos’ hand marked and Coline’s arms
Witnesses said a waitress waved a sparkler in a champagne bottle while sitting on a colleague’s shoulders, igniting the ceiling and setting the wood-panelled basement alight.
The blaze spread in seconds, forcing a stampede as more than 100 partygoers, mostly teens and young adults, fought to get up a single, narrow staircase that was the only way out and then get out of the ground floor, which was also engulfed.
Swiss president Guy Parmelin said it was ‘one of the worst tragedies our country has experienced’.
Locals gave horrifying accounts of victims burning ‘from head to foot’ and bodies in the snow ‘shirtless, disfigured, burned’.
Police commander Frederic Gisler confirmed the fire ‘started in the basement’ and there was a crush as people tried to flee up the single staircase.
While authorities refused to speculate on the exact cause, witnesses and video footage suggest it was started by the sparkler, with investigations opened.
Survivors said a table of customers made a large drinks order, prompting a waitress to get on her colleague’s shoulders and wave the sparkler for them. One told local journalists that the candle ‘was very close to the ceiling’ which caught fire ‘in a matter of seconds’.
Video footage shows the ceiling catch fire rapidly before the blaze spread through the mostly wooden building.
A grab of a video obtained from the X account of @Tyroneking36852 shows the fire
Social media pages for the venue were quickly taken down, but an old video shows sparklers being used liberally at Le Constellation, which has a capacity of up to 300 customers.
From his hospital bed, the teenager told Paris Match of how he had saved Coline in the fire.
‘We went downstairs because Coline had to go to the toilet,’ he said. ‘So I went with her and took the opportunity to go to the toilet too.’
‘It all happened very quickly, I didn’t really think about it. I went straight to Coline, called her, she was in the toilet and we ran up the stairs’, he said.
He ended up sitting in the bar upstairs with severe burns before being air lifted to hospital.
A local bus driver said the ‘firecrackers’ are ‘banned in a lot of clubs’. ‘They should never be allowed anywhere near crowded places,’ he said. ‘This is an absolute tragedy.’
In a statement, French football club FC Metz announced that their youth team player Dos Santos was among those to have been injured.
His agent, Christophe Hutteau, provided more detail, telling BFMTV of the severity of the footballer’s injuries.
‘He was transferred to a specialised burns center in Stuttgart, Germany,’ he stated. ‘The latest news I received was from Tahirys’s parents, who drove all night to be by their son’s side.
‘I can’t tell you he’s doing well because he’s in terrible pain. He has burns covering 30 per cent of his body.
‘The positive point is that his lungs, which were also affected, have improved considerably.’
Dos Santos returned to action for Metz in April and recently signed his first professional contract with the club.
