Desperate guests at a Turkish ski resort that exploded into flames tried to escape using bedsheets as ropes hanging from the windows, while others died after trying to jump to safety.

Kartalkaya, Turkey — As flames tore through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkey, friends Esra Karakisa and Halime Cetin stood helpless as the horror unfolded before them, with people leaning out of smoke-filled rooms pleading for help and others making the harrowing decision to jump.

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.

Witnesses have described standing helplessly and paralyzed by the horror of people screaming for help or jumping out of windows as flames tore through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort

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.

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.