Istanbul:

Fourteen people have now been arrested as part of a criminal investigation into a fire at a Turkish luxury ski resort hotel that killed 78, state media reported on Friday.

The Anadolu news agency said eight people were brought before prosecutors on Friday in connection with the blaze that swept through the Grand Kartal Hotel in Kartalkaya early Tuesday.

The owner of the hotel and his son-in-law are among those detained, along with the general manager, director and chief electrician, and the fire chief in the nearby town of Bolu.

Negligence is suspected for the high death toll, after survivors said there were no fire alarms, safety exits or fire doors at the 12-storey hotel, trapping people inside.

Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has said 238 people, most of them families with children, were staying at the hotel northwest of the capital Ankara at the time of the fire.

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