Fire in Turkish ski resort Kartalkaya kills 10 people, injures 32

A fire in a ski resort hotel in Turkey has killed at least 10 people and injured 32.

The blaze broke out in the hotel’s restaurant in Kartalkaya in northwestern Turkey on Tuesday night, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.

The governor of Bolu province, where the ski resort is located, told state-run news agency Anadolou that two of the victims died after jumping out of the building in panic.

According to Bolu Governor Abdulaziz Aydin, the hotel had 234 guests staying at the time of the accident.

Private NTV television 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 television 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 Koroglu mountains, some 300 kilometers east of Istanbul. The fire occurred during the school semester break when hotels in the region are packed.

Aydin’s office said 30 fire trucks and 28 ambulances were sent to the site.

Other hotels at the resort were evacuated as a precaution.