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Well, let's recap, in fact, that breaking news this morning
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At least 10 people are known to have died after an explosion in a Swiss ski resort bar called Kranz, Montana
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in the popular tourist hotspot Valais. A helpline has been set up
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We were sharing that number with you earlier. We're joined now by former Met Police detective Peter Blexley
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to discuss the situation on the ground in Switzerland. Peter, good morning to you. Happy New Year
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Not really the sort of news we want to hear on a day like today. No, very distressing news from this ski resort
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And, of course, the first responders will primarily have been thinking about preserving life, protecting life
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when the initial perhaps firefighters and police attended. And then as the hours passed by, then what will be fulfilling the minds of the detectives will be what caused this
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Now, when we hear explosion, perhaps a lot of people might think, oh, goodness me, was this a terrorist attack
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We simply do not know yet. Word is that the Swiss police are going to be holding a press conference fairly soon
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And I'm sure that as daylight dawns, we will get to find out a lot more about this clearly tragic incident
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Do we have a sense of just how many people may have been inside at the time of this, as you say, explosion, but undetermined what caused it
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Well, of course, local time, it was half past one in the morning
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So one fears, perhaps, that the premises was packed full of revelers
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seeing in the new year. Perhaps that would account for this appallingly high death toll We have to wait and see I sure the press conference will reveal a lot more Now of course when you think about a Swiss ski resort you would think perhaps well
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will there be challenges for the emergency services to reach there? Well, in ski resorts, they're generally speaking
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pretty well practised of medical emergencies because many skiers do unfortunately injure themselves
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But when we're talking about an incident of this magnitude, I'm sure it will have put all the 999 services
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as we call them here, under considerable pressure. Yeah, I mean, we're just..
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There's some more news coming in from the scene, Peter. It's a place called the Constellation Bar
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and it could hold up to 300 people. Had a small outdoor terrace as well
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Still no idea on the precise numbers of people there. But obviously it's a party night
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Lots of people there would have been, obviously, celebrating, drinking. So you can imagine the chaos on the panic when this happened
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Yes, and in recent years, unfortunately, there have been terror attacks on New Year's Eve
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because terrorists are well aware that people are going to gather together and party
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But I must reinforce at the moment, we have no indicators yet that this is a terrorist incident
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We shall simply have to wait and see. What people perhaps could bear in mind
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is that sometimes in facilities in ski resorts, They don't all have mains gas installation
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and some businesses have their gas stored in tanks. Now, again, I don't know any specific detail about this
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but let's all hold fire. Let's remain very, very calm until we know exactly what the cause of this tragic event is
