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At least 66 people were killed when a huge fire ripped through a hotel at a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkey that was packed with people enjoying the winter holidays, among them families. 

The blaze at the Grand Kartal Hotel in Kartalkaya broke out around 3.30 am local time, sending huge clouds of smoke into the night air and sparking panic among the guests. 

Survivors and eyewitnesses spoke of scenes of desperation as people tried to flee the burning building with some leaping out of the windows or using bedsheets as a makeshift rope. 

“People on the upper floors were screaming. They threw bedsheets out of the windows, some tried to jump,” Atakan Yelkovan, who escaped from the third floor with his wife, told IHA news agency. 

A very shaken hotel employee, who did not give his name, said he saw guests at their windows screaming for help. 

“I saw a father with his baby in his arms asking for pillows so he could throw down his son. Luckily he waited for the emergency services who saved them,” he told IHA. 

“But on the top floor, two women threw themselves out of the window and died,” he said, explaining that students were staying on the top floor. 

Tragedy struck at peak season for the ski hotel, which stands at 2000 metres above sea level and was almost full for the two-week winter break which began on Friday. 

“Sixty-six people died and 51 others were wounded,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told reporters in Kartalkaya, around 170km northwest of the capital Ankara. 

He said 238 guests were staying there. 

Fell to death 

One survivor called Eylem Senturk said she and her daughter managed to get out despite the thick black smoke on their landing but her husband was trapped. 

“Although he was right behind us, he couldn’t get downstairs due to the smoke so he jumped from the window to the porch below,” she told Anadolu news agency, saying he’d then jumped to safety onto a car roof. 

Baris Salgur, who works at a nearby hotel, said those trapped inside were screaming for help. 

“They wanted blankets so they could jump so we brought pillows and a sofa. Some people jumped as the flames approached,” he told private NTV television. 

At least three people who tried to climb out of the windows fell to their deaths, NTV said. 

The fire is thought to have started in the restaurant and quickly spread through the hotel which was covered with wooden cladding. The cause was not immediately clear. 

‘Great pain’ 

“Our pain is great,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, declaring a national day of mourning on Wednesday, and pledging a thorough investigation with those responsible being “held to account”. 

Police arrested four people, including the hotel’s owner and six prosecutors were allocated to the case, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on X. 

Tourism Minister Nuri Ersoy said the hotel had two fire escapes and had passed a fire inspection “in 2021 and 2024” but some survivors said there appeared to be no safety mechanisms in place. 

“No fire alarm went off... and there was no fire escape,” said Yelkovan, who escaped from the third floor, telling IHA it had taken “about an hour to an hour-and-a-half” for the firefighters to arrive. 

After the flames were finally doused, footage from inside showed the blackened lobby filled with charred wooden furniture and shattered glass, with the authorities warning the structure was in danger of collapse. 

As Turkey counted the dead, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen sent a message praising the “incredible courage” of the first responders and saying Europe “stands united with Turkiye and its people in this tragedy” in a posting on X. 

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also posted on X, saying he was “deeply saddened by the tragic loss of lives in the ski resort fire” and extending his “heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims”. 

– Agence France-Presse