New Delhi, Jan. 2 -- Axel Clavier felt like he was suffocating inside the Swiss Alpine bar where moments before he'd been ringing in the new year with friends and dozens of other revelers.

The 16-year-old from Paris escaped the inferno, which broke out after midnight Thursday, by forcing a window open with a table. But about 40 other partygoers died, including one of Clavier's friends, falling victim to one of the worst tragedies in Switzerland's history.

The blaze also injured about 115 people, many of them in their teens to mid-20s, as it ripped through the crowded Le Constellation bar at the ski resort of Crans-Montana, police said.

Clavier told The Associated Press that "two or three" of his friends remained missing hours after the...