One killed in Turkey hotel gas explosion

A gas tank exploded at a Turkish five-star Mediterranean hotel today, killing one person and injuring 11 others, including two foreign tourists, the governor's office said.

The explosion of the liquefied petroleum gas tank damaged the kitchen and the restaurant of the Kaya Hotel in the resort town of Belek, near Antalya, the government-run Anatolia news agency reported.

A Turkish kitchen staff member was killed in the blast, which also injured nine other staff members and two tourists - one from Russia and one from Norway, the Antalya governor's office said.

Most of the injured suffered cuts from broken glass, the statement said.

Earlier, the Dogan news agency had reported that five tourists were among the injured.

Witness Helga Burgeman from Dortmund, Germany, who was in the hotel at the time, told Anatolia she saw a huge ball of fire in the garden.

"All of the windows were broken. We escaped to the beach through the fire escape,'' she said.

Belek is popular with German, Israeli and Russian tourists.

Ambulances and firefighters rushed to the scene to evacuate the hotel, CNN-Turk and private NTV televisions said.

CNN-Turk said workers replaced a giant liquefied petroleum gas tank at the hotel only days ago.