A fire at a ski resort hotel in Türkiye killed 76 people “like the end of the world”, a witness said.

A fire at a ski resort hotel in Turkey’s Bolu Mountains killed at least 76 people and injured 51 others on Tuesday, forcing terrified guests to jump out of windows in the middle of the night.

“It was like the end of the world,” said Mevlut Ozer, who witnessed the incident at the Kartalkaya ski resort in the Koroğlu Mountains of Bolu province, about 300 kilometers east of Istanbul. “The fire engulfed the hotel immediately, within about half an hour.”

Authorities said the fire broke out around 3:30 a.m. local time on the restaurant floor of the 12-story Grand Kartal Hotel.

Several fire engines and ambulances surrounded the charred, wood-fronted building, where white bedsheets were tied together and hanging from an upstairs window as people tried to escape.

Omar Sakrak, another witness and an employee at a nearby hotel, said: “People started jumping in terror. A man jumped from the eleventh floor, may God have mercy on him.”

“They tried to get down using bedsheets,” he told Reuters. “The sheets were torn when a man tried… and unfortunately he fell on his head.” “One father was shouting at his one-year-old child: ‘I will throw my child away or he will burn.’”

Provincial Governor Abdulaziz Aydin told the state-run Anadolu Agency earlier that at least two of the victims died when they jumped from the building in panic. The newspaper reported that among the dead were Nedim Turkmen, a columnist for the Sozcu newspaper, his wife and two children.

The death toll was updated from 66 to 76 on Tuesday.

Witnesses stated that they did not hear any alarms

Hotel guests told television stations that they fled through smoke-filled corridors and heard no alarms.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said there were 238 guests at the hotel, which is located at the base of several ski slopes and which remained ablaze until the afternoon.

“We feel deep pain,” Yerlikaya told reporters after inspecting the site.

“Since the back of the hotel is located on a slope, firefighting efforts can only be carried out from the front and side facades,” he said, adding that crews began fighting the blaze on the mountaintop about 45 minutes after the first call.

Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu said that at least one of the injured was in serious condition, while 17 other people were treated and released.

Global Affairs Canada said it is not aware of any Canadian citizens affected by the fire.

4 people were arrested pending investigation

The fire, which coincided with school holidays when many families from neighboring Istanbul and Ankara head to the Bolu Mountains for skiing, is being investigated.

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tonk said in a post on the X website that the authorities arrested four people, including the hotel owner, as part of the investigation.

Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy told reporters that the hotel underwent inspections in 2021 and 2024 and “no negative situation regarding firefighting efficiency” was reported by the fire department.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a national day of mourning starting Wednesday. He added that all flags on government buildings and the Turkish diplomatic mission abroad will be flown at half mast.

Erdogan said in a speech he delivered earlier in Ankara: “All necessary steps will be taken to shed light on all aspects of the incident and hold those responsible accountable.”