bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Associated Press

Reuters

A fire at a ski resort hotel in Turkey’s Bolu mountains killed 76 people on Tuesday and forced panicked guests to jump out of windows in the middle of the night.
Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said at least 51 other people were injured in the disaster that struck the Grand Kartal hotel in the resort of Kartalkaya, in Bolu province’s Koroglu mountains, some 300km (185 miles) east of Istanbul.
The fire occurred during the schools’ semester break, when hotels in the region are packed.
“We are in deep pain,” Yerlikaya told reporters after inspecting the site.
“I would like to share this pain, which is impossible to describe,” he said in offering condolences.

Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu said at least one of the injured was in serious condition, while 17 other people had been discharged after being treated, he said.
The fire broke out at around 3.30am local time in the hotel’s restaurant section, reports said. The government appointed six prosecutors to lead an investigation into the blaze.
At least two of the victims died after jumping from the building in a panic, Governor Abdulaziz Aydin told the state-run Anadolu Agency earlier, Private NTV television and other media reported that some people tried to climb down from their rooms using sheets and blankets.
There were some 234 guests staying at the hotel, Aydin said.
Necmi Kepcetutan, a ski instructor at the hotel, said he was asleep when the fire erupted, and he rushed out of the building. He told NTV television that he then helped some 20 guests out of the hotel.
He said the hotel was engulfed in smoke, making it difficult for guests to locate the fire escape.
“I cannot reach some of my students. I hope they are OK,” the ski instructor told the station.


Television images showed the roof and top floors of the hotel on fire.
Witnesses and reports said the hotel’s fire detection system failed to operate.
“My wife smelled the burning. The alarm did not go off,” Atakan Yelkovan, a guest staying on the third floor of the hotel, told the IHA news agency.
“We tried to go upstairs but couldn’t, there were flames. We went downstairs and came here [outside],” he said.
Yelkovan said it took about an hour for the firefighting teams to arrive.
“People on the upper floors were screaming. They hung down sheets … some tried to jump,” he said.
Baris Salgur, a hotel guest, told broadcaster NTV that people jumped from windows to escape, including two women on the top floor who urged those on the ground to ready pillows. “When the fire got close, they jumped right away,” he said.
Another guest told Ekol TV that he and his family woke up to the fire but did not hear alarms, then entered smoke-filled corridors and eventually jumped from a lower-floor window onto snow below.
NTV television suggested that the wooden cladding on the exterior of the hotel, in a chalet-style design, may have accelerated the spread of the fire. The 161-room hotel is on the side of a cliff, hampering efforts to combat the flames, the station also reported.

Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy told reporters that the hotel underwent inspections in 2021 and 2024 and that “no negative situation regarding fire competence” was reported by the fire department.
In an address in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said: “Unfortunately, we received very sad news this morning from Bolu, Kartalkaya. Our brothers and sisters were killed and injured in a fire that broke out in a hotel.”
“All necessary steps will be taken to shed light on all aspects of the incident and to hold those responsible accountable,” he added.
NTV showed a smoke-blackened lobby, its glass entrance and windows smashed, its wooden reception desk charred, and a chandelier crashed to the ground.
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, and guests were placed in hotels around Bolu.
Meanwhile, a gas explosion at a hotel at another ski resort in central Turkey injured four people.
The explosion took place at the Yildiz Mountain Winter Sports Center in Sivas province. Two skiers and their instructor were slightly injured, while another instructor received second-degree burns on the hands and face, the Sivas governor’s office said.


Turkish ski resort fire kills 76, forces guests to jump from windows, alarm failure blamed

France seizes tonnes of ‘aphrodisiac honey’ from Malaysia

Hong Kong should market Greater Bay Area to the world

Turkish railway, with Chinese upgrades, could bypass Russia on route to Europe

Turkey

Firefighters try to extinguish the fire. Photo: IHA via AP

Crews working at the site of the fire that broke out in a hotel in the Kartalkaya Ski Resort in Bolu, Turkey, on January 21, 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE/Sakarya Municipality Fire Department

A fire engulfs a hotel in Bolu’s Kartalkaya ski resort. Photo: Demiroren News Agency/AFP

Gas heater explodes at Czech restaurant, killing 6 in fire

Firefighters and security forces check the scene of the burnt restaurant damaged by a propane-butane cylinder explosion in Most, Czech Republic on Sunday. Photo:  EPA-EFE

Emergency services attend the scene of the fire in Most, Czech Republic on Sunday. Photo: CTK via AP

A French customs officer holds packs of illegally imported “Black Horse” honey touted as an all-natural sexual enhancement. Photo: Douanes Francaises/AFP

Packs of illegally imported “aphrodisiac honey” are seen at a French customs office. Photo: Douanes Francaises/AFP

Teen kills teacher and fellow student in Slovakia high school knife attack

Police are seen outside a grammar school in the town of Spisska Stara Ves, eastern Slovakia where a student killed at least two people and seriously wounded another in a knife attack. Photo: AFP

Police asked the public for help finding the 18-year old male student suspected of committing a knife attack at a school in the town of Spisska Stara Ves, Slovakia, on Thursday. Photo: Slovak Police via Reuters

Police officers keep watch in front of a school following a knife attack in the town of Spisska Stara Ves, Slovakia, on Thursday. Photo: JOJ TV via Reuters

UK teenager pleads guilty to killing 3, wounding 10 in Southport attack that sparked riots

A prison van arrives at The Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts in Liverpool, ahead of the trial of Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana. Photo: AFP

Protesters outside the Liverpool Crown Court where the trial of Axel Rudakubana was held. Photo: EPA-EFE

Police officers and forensic personnel stand behind a cordon on Hart Street in Southport on July 29, 2024, following a knife attack in which Axel Rudakubana, 18, killed three young girls in a stabbing spree. Photo: AFP

News

World

Europe

Wooden cladding on the exterior of the hotel may have accelerated the spread of the fire


Wooden cladding on the exterior of the hotel may have accelerated the spread of the fire.
