New Year blazes

Inferno guts Amsterdam church 

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — A huge inferno gutted a 19th century Amsterdam church Thursday, as the Netherlands endured an unsettled New Year’s Eve with two dead from fireworks and “unprecedented” violence against police.

The blaze broke out in the early hours at the Vondelkerk, a tourist attraction that has overlooked one of the city’s top parks since 1872.

The 50-meter-high tower collapsed and the roof was badly damaged but the structure was expected to remain intact, Amsterdam authorities said.

The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear.

Fire rips through crowded bar

CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AFP) — “Several dozen” people are believed to have died and around 100 were injured when a fire ripped through a crowded bar in the luxury Swiss ski resort town of Crans-Montana, police said Thursday.

“Several dozen people are presumed to have died,” Frederic Gisler, police commander in the Wallis canton in southwestern Switzerland, told reporters.

A police spokesperson named the bar as Le Constellation, which has a capacity of 300 people and another 40 people on its terrace, according to the Crans-Montana website.