A fire at a Turkey ski resort has killed at least 10 people

At least 10 people were killed and 32 others injured on Tuesday after a fire broke out at a hotel with more than 200 guests in a ski resort in western Turkey, authorities said.

The fire at the Grand Kartal Hotel in the town of Kartalkaya in Bolu Province, about 180 kilometers east of Istanbul, happened during the winter holidays for schools across the country, a time when families flocked to ski resorts and other vacation spots.

The fire started around 3:30 am in the local area, when most of the people inside were sleeping, according to the information received. In an attempt to escape, some people tied bed sheets to make a rope which they used to get down to the lower floor, the video showed.

The cause of the fire is unclear.

Television footage showed smoke billowing from a building framed by snow-capped mountains. Dozens of rescuers and fire trucks were dispatched from nearby towns.

“When I came out of my room, I saw the flames on the fourth floor, the restaurant floor,” Necmi Kepcetutan, a ski instructor who also worked at the hotel, told the NTV network. “Then it started flooding the hotel. We helped around a dozen or so people to leave because we knew the hotel well.”

“People were screaming to be saved,” he added.

Two people — a guest and a hotel employee — were killed when they jumped from the building, Bolu Province Governor Abdulaziz Aydin told the state-run Anadolu Agency.

The fire occurred on the same day as an explosion that injured four people at another Turkish resort in the central province of Sivas, the governor’s office said in a written statement. .

The cause of the explosion has not yet been determined. Two skiers and one trainer suffered minor injuries, while one trainer suffered burns to his hands and face, the statement said.