Istanbul, 21 January 2025 (dpa/MIA) - The death toll from a fire at a hotel in a Turkish ski resort has risen to 66, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Tuesday.

Another 51 people were injured, Yerlikaya told reporters in Bolu province where the hotel is located, some 300 kilometres east of Istanbul.

The cause of the devastating fire, one of the worst hotel accidents in recent Turkish history, was immediately unclear.

The fire is now under control and emergency services on site are continuing with "cooling" work, said the minister.

The hotel is built on a hill, making it harder to extinguish the fire from all sides, Yerlikaya added.

A total of 238 guests were staying at the hotel in the popular Kartalkaya ski resort when the fire broke out overnight.

"We are in deep sorrow," President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said during a party meeting in the capital Ankara, pledging a full investigation into the incident.

Bolur Mayor Tanju Özcan said the hotel was one of the oldest in the area and was made primarily of wood. This could have led to the fire spreading quickly.

Videos showed people trying to save themselves by tying bedsheets together. An eyewitness told local daily Hürriyet that he had seen people jumping out of the windows.

Two people died after jumping out of a window, local media reported. Eylem Şentürk, who was staying at the hotel with her husband and daughter, told state broadcaster TRT that heavy smoke had made it almost impossible to find the door and the fire escape.

Şentürk also said the fire alarm did not work as the guests raced to save themselves.

Photo: Anadolu/ EPA