A fire has engulfed a hotel in the Turkish ski resort of Bolu, killing 66 people and injuring at least 51 more, officials have said. The fire broke out at the 12-story Grand Kartal Hotel at 03:27 local time (00:27 GMT) during a busy holiday period when 234 people were staying there, he added. An initial toll of 10 dead was raised significantly in the hours after the fire by Turkey's interior ministry. At least two people died after jumping from the hotel's windows, Turkish reports said. Footage circulating in Turkey showed linen hanging from windows that were used by those trying to escape the burning building. Bolu governor Abdulaziz Aydin said initial reports suggested the fire had broken out in the restaurant section of the hotel's fourth floor and spread to the floors above. The hotel was investigating whether guests had been trapped in their rooms as the fire spread. The governor told reporters the distance between the hotel, in Kartalkaya, and the center of Bolu, paired with the freezing weather conditions, meant it took more than an hour for fire engines to arrive. Rescue efforts continued through the morning, and the interior minister said emergency services had deployed 267 people to respond to the fire. By mid-morning the local mayor said they were still trying to reach parts of the hotel. The Bolu mountains are popular with skiers from Istanbul and the capital Ankara and the hotel was operating at high occupancy at the start of the two-week school holidays. The northwestern town is about 170km (105 miles) from Ankara. Although the fire was confined to one hotel, the governor told Turkish media that a neighboring hotel was evacuated as a precaution. Ski instructor Necmi Kepcetutan told Turkish TV he had managed to escape because he knew the hotel, while guests who did not know it as well as him were not as fortunate. "People were shouting at the windows, 'Save us,' because there was intense smoke inside. We pulled 20-25 people out," he told NTV. The circumstances that led to the fire are not yet clear. Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said prosecutors had been allocated to investigate the blaze. — BBC
