A Turkish court has sentenced 11 people to life in prison over a fire that killed 78 people at a ski resort in northwest Turkey's Bolu mountains in January, state media reported.

Halit Ergul, owner of the Grand Kartal Hotel where the blaze erupted, was among the 11 defendants given aggravated life sentences by the court in Bolu province on Friday, according to state-run broadcaster TRT Haber.

Thirty-four children were among those killed in the fire, which occurred during school holidays when many families from nearby Istanbul and Ankara head to the Bolu mountains to ski. Another 137 people suffered injuries.

There were a total of 32 defendants in the trial, 20 of them in pre-trial detention, TRT said. Besides Ergul, the accused included hotel board members, managers and staff, as well a

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