American Marconi Wireless News - 'Are they OK?': desperate search for the missing after Swiss fire

"Are they OK? Are they just at the hospital?" one of the 17-year-olds says.

They have not heard from them since a blaze tore through a New Year's celebration in the luxury resort town of Crans-Montana, turning what should have been a night of revelry into a globe-spanning tragedy.

Police estimate around 40 people have been killed and about 115 injured, many of them young visitors to the Swiss Alps.

Officials have started the arduous process of identifying the victims, but with some of the bodies badly burned, police warned the process could take days or even weeks.

Relatives and friends have been scrambling to find their loved ones, with many circulating photos on social media.

"We tried to reach them; some of their locations are still showing here," said one of the teenagers from Valais, nodding at the bar now shielded by opaque white tarpaulins and behind a wall of temporary barriers.

"We took loads of photos (and) we put them on Instagram, Facebook, every social network possible to try to find them," Eleonore said.

"But there's nothing. No response. We called the parents. Nothing. Even the parents don't know," she added.

They managed to get news that one friend was in a coma in a hospital in the city of Lausanne.

More than 30 victims were taken to hospitals with specialised burns units in Zurich and Lausanne, and six were taken to Geneva, according to a Swiss news agency.

There is no official estimate of the missing or headcount from Le Constellation bar that night.

Italy's ambassador Gian Lorenzo Cornado told AFP that five of the injured have not yet been identified.

A few hundred metres from the remnants of the burned bar, the nearby convention centre has been turned into a crisis unit.

Away from the press and guarded by police, families of the victims are received and offered assistance by authorities, diplomats and chaplains.

Swiss President Guy Parmelin said the support on offer would be "long-lasting".

Nathan, a 19-year-old who was in the bar just before it caught fire, told AFP he keeps expecting to wake up from the "nightmare".

"It feels like... I'm going to wake up tomorrow and get all my loved ones back who sadly died in this incident," he said.

"Normally a new year is full of happiness, but unfortunately, this has happened."

P.Costa--AMWN