Getty ImagesA fire at a hotel in the Turkish ski resort of Bolu left 10 people dead and 32 others injured, according to Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya.
At least two of the victims died after jumping out of hotel windows, according to Turkish reports.
The fire broke out at 3:27 a.m. local time (0027 GMT) at the 12-story Grand Kartal Hotel, during a busy holiday period when 234 people were staying there, it added.
Images circulating in Türkiye showed laundry hanging from windows and used by those trying to escape the burning building.
Bolu Governor Abdulaziz Aydin said initial reports suggested the fire broke out in the fourth-floor restaurant section of the hotel and spread to the upper floors.
The hotel was investigating whether guests were trapped in their rooms when the fire spread.
The governor told reporters that the distance between the hotel, in Kartalkaya, and the center of Bolu, as well as the freezing weather conditions, meant it took more than an hour for fire trucks to arrive.
Rescue efforts continued throughout the morning and the interior minister said emergency services had deployed 267 personnel to respond to the fire.
By mid-morning, the local mayor said they were still trying to reach parts of the hotel.
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Getty ImagesThe Bolu Mountains are popular with skiers from Istanbul and the capital Ankara and the hotel was operating at full capacity at the start of the two-week school holiday.
The northwestern city is about 170 km (105 miles) from Ankara.
Although the fire was limited to one hotel, the governor told Turkish media that a nearby hotel had been evacuated as a precaution.
Ski instructor Necmi Kepcetutan told Turkish television that he managed to escape because he knew the hotel, while guests who did not know it as well as he did did not have as much chance.
“People were shouting at the windows: ‘Save us,’ because there was intense smoke inside. We got 20 to 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 assigned to investigate the fire.
