Geneva: Those who witnessed the inferno inside Le Constellation nightclub point to a single moment of celebration that brought horror to hundreds of young people in the Swiss Alps.

A male bartender lifted a female colleague onto his shoulders as she carried a bottle of champagne through the crowd in the basement bar in the first hours of the new year.

A photograph of the bar reportedly taken by a survivor before the fire broke out.Credit: BFMTV

Attached to the bottles were small fireworks – what Australians call “sparklers” – that lit up the bar.

“The sparks flew up to the ceiling and the whole thing caught fire. In a few seconds, the entire ceiling was on fire,” one witness, Julie, a young French woman, told The Times.

Another French witness, Emma, gave a similar account to news channel BFMTV about the bottles and fireworks.

“Some of the bottles were near the ceiling and it caught fire. The whole ceiling was in flames, and the fire spread really fast. It happened in seconds,” she said.

It was about 1.30am on New Year’s Day (11.30am Thursday AEDT) and young people had........

© The Age