The coastal city of Antalya, Sept. 7, 2022. (Credit: Bekir Bektas/ANADOLU AGENCY/AFP)
BEIRUT — Two Lebanese tourists died Saturday during a hotel fire in Antalya, a tourist town in south-west Turkey, Lebanon's ambassador to Ankara Ghassan Moallem confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour. The two victims are from Qartaba, in Jbeil qada.
"At around 3:45 a.m. on Saturday, an air conditioner caught fire and caused a blaze in the hotel," said Moallem. "Some people managed to escape, others were trapped. Among them were two Lebanese.”
Alp Pasha hotel is located in Antalya's old town. Antalya police have opened an investigation into the incident.
Qartaba municipality has yet to respond to L’Orient-Le Jour’s requests for comment.
Imad Bazzi, a Lebanese living in Turkey and member of the International Network for Aid, Relief and Assistance (INARA), wrote on social media that 12 injured people had been rescued from the hotel and that Lebanese authorities were working to repatriate the bodies of the two deceased.
Contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, he added that two young Lebanese women, aged 13 and 23 years, were rescued "and are being treated in hospital after suffering breathing difficulties. The other survivors are from the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden." He claims his information comes from Lebanese nationals living in Antalya. Bazzi lives about four hours from the city.
Antalya is one of Turkey's top destinations and remains the number-one tourist attraction for Lebanese.
The devastating earthquake of February 6, which killed almost 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria, claimed the lives of 16 Lebanese citizens, according to the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On Jan. 1 2017, a man armed with an assault rifle burst into Istanbul's La Reina nightclub, shooting dead 39 people at a New Year's Eve gathering, among them three Lebanese nationals.
