The Gotthard Base Tunnel has opened in Switzerland, and its inaugural ceremony was bizarre enough to have many conspiracy theorists calling it a satanic ritual. After 17-years of construction, which included extensive boring deep below the Swiss Alps, the world’s longest tunnel officially opened on Wednesday, reports CNN.

The completion of the project, which had been labeled “Switzerland’s construction of the century,” was marked by an unusual performance that is being called a satanic ritual in Switzerland and has the internet buzzing.

The unbelievably strange Swiss ceremony was attended by a plethora of European leaders. Included among the guests were French President Francois Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the President of Switzerland Johann Schneider-Ammann. The world leaders were treated to the first official journey through the tunnel. Then they were treated to a satanic celebration of the tunnel’s completion.

Check out the ceremony that was performed to celebrate the completion of Switzerland’s Gotthard Base Tunnel.

As TruNews reports, the ceremony was separated into two different events, and who got to attend which depended upon their elite status or lack thereof. Outside of the tunnel, the so-called satanic ritual was attended by thousands who had come to celebrate the completion of Switzerland’s record-breaking tunnel. Inside, elite dignitaries watched the alleged bizarre satanic ritual unfold.

Both events, inside and outside of the tunnel, featured performances that were “laced with graphic demonic symbolism” and broadcast live around the world.

The opening ceremony for the Swiss tunnel was really, really, really weird. https://t.co/gMrxmY3Vab — Roland Hughes (@hughesroland) June 1, 2016

The indoor ceremony was imagined and coordinated by Volker Hesse, a German director.

While many people across the globe have expressed concern and even disgust for what they saw as Switzerland’s public satanic ritual, the odd ceremony was dubbed by the BBC as nothing more than a “lavish performance” that was intended to be a representation of an array of aspects the culture in Switzerland.

Right after Underground World News, I will be decoding the Gotthard Base Tunnel Satanic Ceremony on Enterthe5t4rz https://t.co/X9rdlW8617 — Enterthe5t4rz (@Enterthe5t4rz) June 3, 2016

Giant Swiss $12 bn tunnel opens: ceremony w/Merkel has satanic demons, lesbians, and Illuminati zombies marching https://t.co/0uXpyGTGjM — John de Nugent (@johndenugentESA) June 3, 2016

Overall, the ceremony that so many are now calling Switzerland’s satanic ritual cost almost $9 million and involved the 600 performing artists including dancers, actors and acrobats.

The ceremony began with a bunch of miners in orange jump suits doing a zombie walk toward a facsimile of the tunnel’s entrance, which was being projected on a video screen.

The world's longest rail tunnel has opened in Switzerland with an elaborate and flamboyant ceremony. #7News https://t.co/SJ2uNKUexo — 7 News Adelaide (@7NewsAdelaide) June 2, 2016

Then the miners were “sacrificed to the tunnel.”

They re-emerged as “spirits,” dressed in nothing more than underwear and veils. That’s when things got really weird, and for some people became satanic. At this point, an actor dressed as a goat showed up in the midst of the performance and began “ritualistically consuming and mating with” the dancers.

The ritual in Switzerland continued with a depiction of a pagan ceremony in which actors planted trees on their heads while the goat man laid on the floor. During this portion of the ritual, the performance artists chanted a song in both Italian and ancient Germanic.

Aaaaand what they're watching. Swiss tunnel ceremony naturally includes diapered, chained owl person. As you would. pic.twitter.com/CcU2L2fNcX — Deirdre (@Deir_in_DC) June 1, 2016

At the end of the performance in Switzerland, the goat man is resurrected and worshiped by the dancers; at this point, many of the dancers were attired in gender-bending clothes, as drifter and/or as “women of the night.”

Many people were especially distressed by the beginning of what they saw as the satanic ritual in Switzerland, because the construction of the tunnel actually cost nine workers their lives. The workers, four from Germany, three from Italy, and one each from South Africa and Austria, have been memorialized in on a plaque displayed near the northernmost end of Switzerland’s new tunnel.

The imagery used in the ritual in Switzerland was so extreme that when the BBC did a photojournalism piece on the ceremony, it had to include a disclaimer. Never mind that the ritual was broadcast live as it took place.

@hughesroland "Warning: This article contains explicit images" Not what I was expecting from the opening of a transport link! — William Edwards (@willedwards) June 1, 2016

The new tunnel in Switzerland has opened up a high-speed rail link underneath the Swiss Alps, effectively connecting northern and southern Europe more conveniently and efficiently than ever before. The tunnel stretches a record-breaking 35 miles.

There has been no word from the world leaders who attended the opening ceremony in Switzerland regarding whether they believe they witnessed a satanic ritual.

What do you think? Was the Gotthard Base Tunnel’s opening ceremony appropriate? Was it just a bizarre, even inexplicable performance art piece? Or was it truly a satanic ritual in Switzerland?

[Photo by Ruben Sprich/AP Photo]