Three suicide bombers opened fire before blowing themselves
up in the main international airport in Istanbul yesterday, killing 36 people
and wounding dozens more, the provincial governor and witnesses said.
Police fired shots to try to stop two of the attackers just
before they reached a security checkpoint at the arrival hall of Ataturk
airport, Europe's third-busiest, but they blew themselves up, a second Turkish
official said.
Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin told reporters that 28 people
had been killed and around 60 wounded. However, Turkish Prime Minister Binali
Yildirim later revised the death toll to 36.
"According to assessments so far, 36 people have lost
their lives and there were also many wounded," Yildirim told reporters at
the site of the attack.
Several witnesses reported two explosions but Sahin said the
authorities believed there may have been three suicide bombers.
A Turkish official said the vast majority of those killed
were Turkish nationals but foreigners were also among the dead.
The roof came down
"There was a huge explosion, extremely loud. The roof
came down. Inside the airport it is terrible, you can't recognise it, the
damage is big," said Ali Tekin, who was at the arrivals hall waiting for a
guest when the attack took place.
A German woman named Duygu, who was at passport control
entering Turkey, said she threw herself onto the floor with the sound of the
explosion. Several witnesses also reported hearing gunfire shortly before the
attacks.
"Everyone started running away. Everywhere was covered
with blood and body parts. I saw bullet holes on the doors," Duygu said
outside the airport.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the
latest in a string of suicide bombings in Turkey this year, but the Dogan news
agency, citing police sources, said initial indications suggested Islamic State
may have been responsible.
A Turkish government official said it was too soon to assign
blame.
The attack bore some similarities to a suicide bombing by
Islamic State militants at Brussels airport in March, which killed 16 people. A
co-ordinated attack also targeted a rush-hour metro train, killing a further 16
people in the Belgian capital.
Paul Roos, 77, described seeing one of the attackers
"randomly shooting" on the departures floor of the terminal.
"He was just firing at anyone coming in front of him.
He was wearing all black. His face was not masked. I was 50 metres away from
him," said Roos, a South African on his way back to Cape Town with his
wife after a holiday in southern Turkey.
"We ducked behind a counter but I stood up and watched
him. Two explosions went off shortly, one after one another. By that time he
had stopped shooting," Roos told Reuters.
"He turned around and started coming towards us. He was
holding his gun inside his jacket. He looked around anxiously to see if anyone
was going to stop him and then went down the
escalator... We heard some more gunfire and then another explosion, and
then it was over."
‘Could have been anywhere’
President Tayyip Erdogan said the attack should serve as a
turning point in his country's fight against militant groups.
"The attack, which took place during the holy month of
Ramadan, shows that terrorism strikes with no regard for faith and
values," Erdogan said in a statement.
"The bombs that exploded in Istanbul today could have
gone off at any airport in any city around the world," he said, urging all
governments to join forces against terrorism.
Speaking in Parliament earlier, Turkish Justice Minister
Bekir Bozdag said initial reports suggested one attacker had initially opened
fire with a Kalashnikov rifle, and then detonated explosives.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said six of those wounded
had sustained serious injuries, while broadcaster NTV said the number of injured
had risen to 106.
Ataturk is Turkey's largest airport and a major transport
hub for international travellers. Pictures posted on social media from the site
showed wounded people lying on the ground inside and outside one of the
terminal buildings.
A helicopter buzzed overhead as police evacuated the
building. Dozens of passengers walked back down access roads with their
luggage, trying to hail cabs. The US Embassy urged US citizens to avoid the
area.
A witness told Reuters that security officials prevented his
taxi and other cars from entering the airport at around 9.50pm (2.50am
Malaysian time). Drivers leaving the terminal shouted "Don't enter! A bomb
exploded!" from their windows to incoming traffic, he said.
Television footage showed ambulances rushing to the scene.
One witness told CNN Turk that gunfire was heard from the car park at the
airport. Taxis were ferrying wounded people from the airport, the witness said.
Flights halted
The head of Red Crescent, Kerem Kinik, said on CNN Turk that
people should go to blood donation centres and not hospitals to give blood and
called on people to avoid main roads to the airport to avoid blocking the path
of emergency vehicles.
Authorities halted the take-off of scheduled flights from
the airport and passengers were transferred to hotels, a Turkish Airlines
official said. Earlier an airport official said some flights to the airport had
been diverted.
In the United States, the Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey reacted to the explosions by putting armed, high-visibility patrols at
the three main airports in the New York metropolitan region.
Turkey has suffered a spate of bombings this year, including
two suicide attacks in tourist areas of Istanbul that are blamed on the Islamic
State, and two car bombings in the capital, Ankara, which were claimed by a
Kurdish militant group.
In the most recent attack, a car bomb ripped through a
police bus in central Istanbul during the morning rush hour, killing 11 people
and wounding 36 near the main tourist district, a major university and the
mayor's office.
Turkey, which is part of the US-led coalition against
Islamic State, is also fighting Kurdish militants in its largely Kurdish
southeast.
One person was killed on Dec 23, 2015, when an explosion hit
Istanbul's second airport, Sabiha Gokcen, located on the Asian side of the
city. This attack was claimed by a Kurdish militant group.
- Reuters
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