Witnesses at Turkish ski resort stood helpless as people leaped out of burning hotel

As flames tore through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkiye, friends Esra Karakisa and Halime Cetin stood helpless, paralysed by the horror unfolding before them: people leaning out of smoke-filled rooms pleading for help and others making the harrowing decision to leap out.

The fire at the Grand Kartal Hotel in Kartalya, in the Koroglu mountains in Bolu province, on Tuesday



left at least 76 people dead and 51 injured. It came near the start of a two-week winter break for schools when hotels in the region are filled to capacity.

“There was no one around. They were calling for firefighters. They were breaking the windows. Some could no longer stand the smoke and flames, and they jumped,” Cetin, an employee at a hotel adjacent to the Grand Kartal, told The Associated Press.