the death toll rises to 76 in a hotel, hit by a fire “now under control”

Survivors denounced negligence in the security of the building, where the fire broke out in the middle of the night.

The toll is extremely heavy. In Turkey, at least 76 people died in a fire in the middle of the night in a hotel in a ski resort in the center of the country on Tuesday January 21, in a new report communicated by the Minister of the Interior, Ali Yerlikaya. The previous report reported 66 dead and 52 injured.

The fire, “now under control”declared “at 3:27 a.m.”the minister confirmed, adding that 238 guests were then registered in the 12-story luxury establishment, the Grand Kartal, located in Kartalkaya, a ski resort 170 km east of Ankara. The flames quickly spread to the rest of the building due to the exterior wooden cladding, Turkish media reported.

Aerial images, broadcast in particular by the Anadolu agency, show large flames escaping from upper windows and the roof, as well as plumes of black smoke. They bear witness to the damage to the roof and upper floors of the establishment, installed at the top of a cliff to have a panoramic view, which complicated the intervention of the 428 firefighters mobilized and arriving on the scene at 4:15 a.m. , specified the Minister of the Interior.

The cause of the disaster is not yet known. Four people, including the hotel owner, were arrested and taken into custody on Tuesday, Justice Minister Yimlaz Tunc announced.

Some survivors denounced negligence in hotel security. “No alarm went off, no smoke detector or emergency staircase even though there was smoke up to the tenth floor”denounced on television a crying fifty-year-old, who had been with his family since Sunday in the establishment.