The fire at the Turkish ski resort has left 10 dead in the hotel in Boluk

A fire at a hotel in the Turkish ski resort of Bolu has killed 10 and injured 32 others, according to Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya.

At least two of the victims died after jumping from hotel windows, Turkish reports said.

The fire broke out at the 12-story Grand Kartal Hotel at 03:27 (00:27 GMT) during a busy holiday season, with 234 people staying there, he added.

Footage circulating in Turkey showed ropes hanging from windows, used by people trying to escape from the burning building.

Bolu Governor Abdulaziz Aydin said initial reports suggested the fire broke out in the hotel’s fourth-floor restaurant section and spread to the upper floors.

The hotel was investigating whether guests were trapped in their rooms when the fire broke out.

The governor told reporters that the distance between the hotel, Kartalkaya, and the center of Bolu, combined with the freezing weather, took more than an hour for fire engines to arrive.

Rescue operations continued throughout the morning, and the Interior Minister said that 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 very busy at the start of the two-week school holidays.

The northwestern town is 170 km (105 miles) from Ankara.

Although the fire was confined to one hotel, the governor told Turkish media that a neighboring hotel had been evacuated as a precaution.

Ski instructor Necmi Kepcetutan told Turkish television that he managed to escape because he knew the hotel, and guests who didn’t know him as well were not so lucky.

“People were shouting at the windows, ‘Save us’, because there was heavy smoke inside. We got 20-25 people out,” he told NTV.

The circumstances that led to the fire are still unclear.

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said prosecutors have been appointed to investigate the fire.