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

Twenty children were among the 76 fatal victims of a fire that spread through a Turkish ski resort in the early morning hours of Jan. 21, according to local media. The fire took place at the Grand Kartal Hotel in the resort of Kartalkaya in northwestern Turkish province of Bolu.

As flames tore through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkey, friends Esra Karakisa and Halime Cetin watched helplessly as the horror unfolded before them. Some people were leaning out of smoke-filled rooms pleading for help,