The fire is suspected to have started in the hotel's dining area.5deb5380-d7c4-11ef-9cd5-d16857cce341.jpg.webp
A fire has engulfed a hotel in the Turkish ski resort of Bolu, killing 66 people and injuring at least 51 others, authorities said.
The fire broke out at the 12-storey Grand Kartal Hotel at 03:27 local time (00:27 GMT) during a busy holiday period when 234 people were staying there, it added.
An initial death toll of 10 was sharply raised in the hours after the fire by the Turkish Interior Ministry. At least two people died after jumping from hotel windows, according to Turkish media.
Images circulating in Turkey show clothes hanging from windows, used by those trying to escape the burning building. Bolu Governor Abdulaziz Aydin said initial reports suggested the fire started in the hotel's fourth-floor restaurant area and spread to upper floors.
The hotel was investigating whether any guests were trapped in their rooms after the fire spread.
The governor told reporters that the distance between the hotel, in Kartalkaya, and the center of Bolu, combined with freezing weather conditions, meant it took firefighters more than an hour to arrive.
Rescue efforts continued throughout the morning and the Interior Ministry said emergency services had deployed 267 people to respond to the blaze.
By mid-morning, the local mayor said they were still trying to reach parts of the hotel.
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Deadly fire at hotel in Turkish ski resort
The Bolu mountains are popular with skiers from Istanbul and the capital Ankara, and the hotel was operating at a high occupancy rate at the start of the two-week school holidays.
The northwestern city is about 170 km (105 miles) from Ankara.
Although the fire was isolated to one hotel, the governor told Turkish media that a nearby hotel had been evacuated as a precaution.
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