Istanbul, Turkey (CNN) — 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. At least 66 people were killed and 51 injured following the early morning blaze at a hotel in the Kartalkaya resort in Bolu province, according to Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya. “We are in deep pain. We have unfortunately lost 66 lives in the fire that broke out at this hotel,” Yerlikaya told reporters on Tuesday. Some desperate holiday goers tried to jump out of windows in order to escape, officials said, as flames licked the top floors of the facility. Footage of the aftermath showed wreaths of gray smoke swirling around the charred building. The 11-story hotel was built onto a rock face, complicating efforts to extinguish the flames. Eyewitnesses recalled the scent of burning, with guests’ screams filling the upper floors of the hotel. “It was so bad. Everybody was jumping out of the windows with the fear of death and people were so ashamed as there were no fire-extinguishers around,” one eyewitness told CNN affiliate CNN Turk. “We could not get water to people. Ambulances and fire trucks came really late, and people did not know what to do,” the eyewitness added. The resort is a popular destination for holiday-makers in the winter, especially during school holidays, which run from January until the first week of February. The timing of the blaze fell in the school holidays, Reuters reported, when people from Istanbul and Ankara travel to the Bolu mountains to ski. There were around 234 guests staying at the hotel, Governor Abdulaziz Aydin told the state-run Anadolu Agency. Two of the victims died after jumping out of the building “in a panic,” Aydin said. At least 30 fire trucks and 28 ambulances were sent to the site, Aydin’s office said. According to Yerlikaya, authorities mobilized 267 emergency personnel to respond to the blaze. Authorities evacuated other hotels at the resort as a precautionary measure, and guests were housed in hotels around Bolu. A number of videos, some shared on social media and others broadcast by Turkish TV stations, showed flames coming out of the top floors of the hotel. Some people were seen using tied bed sheets to try to escape the blaze.