ANKARA/KARTALKAYA - Türkiye 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 Türkiye, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said early Wednesday.

Yerlikaya also reported that the bodies of 45 victims had been handed over to their families, while DNA tests were being conducted to identify the remaining bodies at the forensic institute.

The fire occurred at the Grand Kartal Hotel in the Kartalkaya ski resort in the Bolu mountains.

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The hotel, where the fire broke out, expressed deep sorrow in a statement on Wednesday and pledged full cooperation with the investigation.

"We are cooperating with authorities to shed light on all aspects of this incident," the statement said. "We are deeply saddened by the losses and want you to know that we share this pain with all our hearts."

The 12-storey hotel, which had 238 registered guests, was consumed by flames after the fire started on the restaurant floor around 3:30 am (0030 GMT). Survivors described scenes of panic as they fled through smoke-filled corridors and jumped from windows to escape.

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"It was like the apocalypse. The flames engulfed the hotel immediately, like in half an hour," said Mevlut Ozer, who witnessed the incident.

"People all started to jump with panic. One friend jumped from the 11th floor - may God have mercy on him," said Omer Sakrak, another witness and employee of a neighboring hotel.

"They tried to climb down using bedsheets. The bedsheets ripped as one friend tried ... and he unfortunately fell on his head," he told Reuters. "One father was yelling about his one-year-old child: 'I will throw my child or he will burn'."

Hotel guests told TV broadcasters they fled through smoke-filled corridors and heard no alarms.

Authorities are facing growing criticism over the hotel’s safety measures, as survivors reported that no fire alarms went off during the incident. Guests said they had to navigate the smoke-filled corridors in complete darkness.

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President Tayyip Erdogan declared Wednesday a day of national mourning following the tragedy, which occurred during the peak of the winter tourism season, with many families from Istanbul and Ankara traveling to the Bolu mountains for skiing.