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Getty ImagesA fire at a hotel in a Turkish sports center in Bolu has left 10 people dead and 32 others injured, according to Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya.
At least two of the victims died after jumping from the hotel window, Turkish reports said.
The fire broke out at the 12-storey Grand Kartal hotel at 03:27 local time (00:27 GMT) during the busy holiday season when 234 people were staying there, he added.
Videos circulating in Turkey showed curtains hanging from windows used by those trying to escape the burning building.
The governor of Bolu, Abdulaziz Aydin, said initial reports indicated that the fire broke out in the restaurant on the fourth floor of the hotel and spread to the ground floor.
The hotel is investigating whether guests were trapped in their rooms as the fire spread.
The governor told reporters the distance between the hotel, in Kartalkaya, and the center of Bolu, combined with the extremely cold weather, meant it took more than an hour for fire engines to arrive.
Rescue operations continued into the morning, and the interior minister said emergency services had sent 267 people to respond to the fire.
By 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 in Istanbul and the capital Ankara and the hotel was operating at peak capacity at the start of the two-week holiday.
The northwestern town is about 170km (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 TV that he was able to escape because he knew the hotel, while the guests who didn’t know it and he didn’t.
“People were shouting through the windows, ‘Save us,’ because there was a lot of smoke inside. We got 20-25 people out,” he told NTV.
The cause of the fire is unknown.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said prosecutors were tasked with investigating the fire.
