At least 11 dead in Georgia hotel fire

At least 11 people have been killed and 19 others injured after a fire ripped through a luxury hotel in Georgia’s Black Sea resort city of Batumi, officials have said.

The fire broke out inside the Leogrand Hotel, about 360 kilometres from the county’s capital Tbilisi, which was set to host the Miss Georgia 2017 beauty pageant.

"Unfortunately, 11 people were killed and 19 were injured in a fire," Giorgi Gakharia, Georgia's interior minister, told reporters.

Participants in the pageant, who had gathered at the Black Sea resort when the blaze took hold, were all rescued using fire escape ladders.

More to come.