The fire began on the restaurant floor of the ski lodge. (Reuters via Ihlas News Agency.)
In short:
At least 66 people have been killed at 51 are injured after a fire broke out at ski-resort in north-west Türkiye.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya says the pain was "impossible to describe".
What's next?
Turkish authorities are investigating the cause of the fire, detaining four people including the owner of the hotel.
A fire at a ski resort hotel in Türkiye's Bolu mountains has killed at least 66 people and forced panicked guests to jump out of windows in the middle of the night.
Some 51 people were injured, Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu said, at the Kartalkaya ski resort in north-west Türkiye.
The blaze began around 3:30am, local time, on the restaurant floor of the 11-storey Grand Kartal Hotel, authorities said on Tuesday.
Turkish authorities have detained four people including the owner of the hotel.
"As part of an investigation led by six prosecutors, four people including the hotel owner were detained," Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on X.
Several fire engines surrounded the charred building, with white bed sheets tied together and dangling from one upper-floor window where guests attempted to flee.
Baris Salgur, a hotel guest, told Turkish broadcaster NTV that people jumped from windows to escape, including two women on the top floor who urged those on the ground to ready pillows.
"When the fire got close they jumped right away," he said.
Firefighters have extinguished the fire at a hotel in the ski resort hotel.
Another guest told Turkish media company Ekol TV that he and his family woke up to the fire but did not hear alarms, then entered smoke-filled corridors and eventually jumped from a lower-floor window onto snow below.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said there were 238 guests at the hotel lying at the base of several ski slopes.
It was still smouldering in the afternoon.
"I would like to share this pain, which is impossible to describe," he said offering his condolences.
"The fire has now been extinguished. Cooling efforts are ongoing. Since the back of the hotel is on a slope, fire extinguishing efforts could only be carried out from the front and side facades."
He added that fire crews began battling the blaze about 45 minutes after the first call.
An investigation was underway into the fire, which coincided with school holidays when many families from nearby Istanbul and Ankara head to the Bolu mountains to ski.
Reuters
