As flames tore through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkey, friends Esra Karakisa and Halime Cetin stood helpless, paralyzed 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.

Turkey has detained nine people, including the owner of the hotel, in connection with a deadly fire that claimed the lives of 76 people and injured dozens at a ski resort in western Turkey, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said early Wednesday.

Nine people, including the hotel’s owner, have been arrested in connection with the blaze. Read more at straitstimes.com.

A fire at a ski resort hotel in Turkey's Bolu mountains killed 66 people and injured 51 others on Tuesday, forcing panicked guests to jump out of windows in the middle of the night.

ANKARA — As the death toll from an overnight fire at a popular ski resort in northwest Turkey rises to 76, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that the country will observe a day of national mourning on Wednesday.

A devastating fire at the Grand Kartal hotel in Turkey's Kartalkaya ski resort killed at least 76 people and injured 51 others during a busy school holiday period.

Witnesses say guests at a ski resort hotel in Turkey tried to escape a deadly fire with ropes and sheets hung from windows.

A fire raged through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkey early Tuesday during a school holiday, killing at least 76 people — at least two of them when they jumped from the building to escape the flames,

A fire that erupted in ski resort in Turkey's Bolu mountains killed at least 66 people, the cause of the fire is under investigation.