Gail Downey: Europe Correspondent on the blaze at the Grand Karla hotel in Bolo, Turkey

Almost 70 people have been killed in a fire at a Turkish ski resort. 

The 12 storey Grand Karla hotel in Bolo was engulfed in flames in the early hours of the morning and took 12 hours to be extinguished. 

UK and Europe correspondent Gail Downey told Francesca Rudkin the scenes from Bolo have been harrowing. 

She says footage circulating on Turkish social media shows people using bed sheets to hang from windows in an attempt to escape. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining me now is Gail Downey, our UK and Europe
correspondent and Gaale. Just a horrible story coming out of Turkey.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Absolutely sixty six people are known to have died in
a fire and it's at a hotel at a ski resort,
very popular ski resort in Turkey. Two people also died
trying to jump to safety. The fire broke out in
the early hours of the morning and took twelve hours
to put out. The fire service was about an hour

(00:28):
away because of the distance from the resort to the
nearest town, and although it's only twenty five kilometers, of course,
the freezing weather conditions. Being a ski resort hampered in
terms of the time it takes the crews to get there.
The fire was believed to have been started in the
restaurant on the fourth floor spread to the rest of

(00:48):
the building. Footage being circulated in Turkey shows people using
linen possibly bedsheets I guess, hanging from windows to escape
from the burning building. Four people have been arrested, including
the owner of the hotel, Gail.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
The UK Prime Minister has announced a public inquiry into
the horrible killing of three young girls at a dance class.
What's going on? Here.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yes, he actually made the announcement this morning live on
TV and radio. And what he said is the concern
that has arisen from Alex Ruder Cabana, who's eighteen years old,
who pleaded guilty yesterday to murdering the three girls and
the attempted murder of ten others plus two terror related charges. Now,

(01:39):
the terror related charges couldn't be revealed before the case
because that might have harmed in terms of you know,
whether someone was incident or guilty. But because he pleaded
guilty at the very last minute at the case, these
have now started to come out. He also admitted producing
the biological toxin ricin and a charge under the Terrorism

(02:04):
Act related to possessing an Al Qaeda training manual and Sirkir.
Starmer's concern is that he says the UK faces a
new threat and that terrorism has changed. He said the
threat now comes from extreme violence carried out by loner's
misfits and young men in their bedrooms accessing dangerous material online.

(02:27):
And the Home Secretary today told MP's in the Housard
Commonsy At Cooper said it was a disgrace that Axel
Ruder Cabana had also been able to buy a knife
from Amazon when he was just seventeen years old, even
though he had a previous conviction for violence.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Gail, thank you so much for the updates. Appreciate that
that was UK and Europe correspondent to Gail Downey for
more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to
news Talks. It'd be from five am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.