The Kartalkaya station, located 170 km from Ankara, is backed by a cliff, which complicated the intervention of the firefighters.
Nearly 270 firefighters and rescuers were mobilized to put out the fire which broke out on the upper floors, for a reason still unknown, the minister said.
It then quickly spread to the rest of the building due to the exterior wooden cladding, reported Turkish media whose images showed large flames escaping from upper windows and the roof, as well as plumes of black smoke.
More than 230 guests were in the hotel during the winter holidays in Turkey, said the private television channel NTV, which claimed that three people died by jumping out of the windows.
No alarm or emergency staircase
Employees of the hotel, the Grand Kartal, helped evacuate customers, but witnesses and media on site denounce the absence of an alarm and smoke detector.
“No alarm went off, no smoke detector or emergency exit even though there was smoke up to the tenth floor,” a crying fifty-year-old, who had been with his family since Sunday, denounced on television in the establishment.
-“People were calling for help, asking for blankets so they could get out through the windows,” said Baris Salgur, an employee at a nearby hotel.
“We brought them what we found, ropes, pillows, and even a sofa… When the flames approached them, some threw themselves into the void.”
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc announced the opening of an investigation entrusted to “six prosecutors” and the formation of a committee of experts to support them.
Mr. Tunc and several other ministers, including that of the Interior, were expected there on Tuesday.
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