Tuesday's fire at the Grand Kartal Hotel in Kartalkaya left at least 79 people dead and 51 injured, happening during a particularly busy season.

Desperate guests at a Turkish ski resort that exploded into flames tried to escape using bedsheets as ropes hanging from the windows, while others died after trying to jump to safety.

The 12-story Grand Kartal hotel in the resort of Kartalkaya in Bolu province was completely destroyed by a massive fire overnight, with 234 guests staying there at the time of the fire

A tragic fire has occurred at the Kartalkaya ski resort in the northwestern part of Turkey. The death toll has already risen to 76 people, including entire families and many children. A national day of mourning has been declared in the country.

Dozens of people were killed after a fire ripped through a ski resort hotel in northwestern Turkey on Tuesday, forcing desperate holidaymakers to leap from windows to escape from the flames and smoke.

Officials in Turkey say that a fire has raged through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in the northwestern part of the country during a school holiday, killing at least 76 people.

The fire coincided with school holidays when many families from nearby Istanbul and Ankara head to the Bolu mountains to ski.

Witnesses have described standing helplessly and paralyzed by the horror of people screaming for help or jumping out of windows as flames tore through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort

Guests said no fire alarms could be heard and there was no sign of firefighters for a long period The fire that killed at least 79 people at the Grand Kartal Hotel in the early hours of Monday is one of the deadliest disasters of its kind in Turkish history.