Tourists hurt in resort blast
2007-03-29 14:44
Ankara - A liquefied natural gas tank exploded in a luxury hotel in southern Turkey on Thursday, killing one employee and injuring 11 people, two of them foreign tourists, officials said.
The authorities launched an investigation into the blast in the kitchen of the hotel in Belek, in the Mediterranean province of Antalya, Turkey's main tourism hub, the Antalya governor's office said in a statement.
The injuries to the 11 people - a Russian and a Norwegian tourists and nine employees - were caused by broken glass and are not serious, it said.
The Anatolia news agency identified the dead person as the hotel's 32-year-old chief butcher.
The explosion also damaged the hotel's restaurant, it said.
The CNN-Turk news channel suggested that the LNG canister had leaked as it was being refilled and the hotel management blamed the blast on the company supplying the gas.
Belek, home to some of Turkey's poshest hotels, is one of the most popular holiday destinations for foreign and domestic tourists in the country.