Death toll in Turkey's Kartalkaya ski resort fire rises to 76
A fire at a ski resort hotel in Turkey has killed at least 76 people and injured 51, Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.
“We are in deep pain." Yerlikaya told reporters after inspecting the site. At least one of the injured was in serious condition, according to Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu.
Yerlikaya said earlier on Tuesday the blaze broke out overnight in the hotel's restaurant in Kartalkaya, in the country's northwest.
The governor of Bolu province, where the resort is located, told state-run news agency Anadolu that two of the victims died after jumping out of the building in panic.
According to Bolu Governor Abdulaziz Aydın, the hotel had 234 guests at the time of the accident.
Private television NTV reported that some people tried to climb down from their rooms using sheets. Television images showed the roof and top floors of the hotel on fire.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known. NTV suggested that the wooden cladding on the hotel's exterior may have accelerated the spread of the fire.
Kartalkaya is a popular ski resort in the Köroğlu mountains, some 300 kilometres east of Istanbul. The blaze occurred during the school winter break when hotels in the region are packed.
The governor's office said 30 fire trucks and 28 ambulances were sent to the site.
Other hotels at the resort were evacuated as a precaution.
