Turkey has arrested 15 people as part of an investigation into a fire that killed 78 people and injured dozens at a ski resort in the Bolu mountains earlier this week, state media reported on Sunday.

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

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.

Turkey has detained 11 people as part of an investigation into a fire that killed 79 people and injured dozens at a ski resort in the Bolu mountains, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on Wednesday. A deputy mayor of the northwestern Bolu province,

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.

Other experts who spoke to the media explained that, given the death toll, the likelihood of the hotel having properly functioning warning, detection and extinguishing system was slim.

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.