36 Killed In Triple Suicide Bombing At Istanbul Airport, Turkish PM Blames ISIS
03:38AM Wed 29 Jun, 2016
Istanbul: Three suicide bombers opened fire then blew themselves up in Istanbul's main international airport on Tuesday, killing 36 people and wounding close to 150 in what Turkey's prime minister said appeared to have been an attack by ISIS terrorists.
One attacker opened fire in the departures hall with an automatic rifle, sending passengers diving for cover and trying to flee, before all three blew themselves up in or around the arrivals hall a floor below, witnesses and officials said.
The attack on Europe's third-busiest airport is one of the deadliest in a series of suicide bombings in Turkey, which is struggling to contain the spillover from neighbouring Syria's civil war and battling an insurgency by Kurdish militants in its southeast.
Forensic police work the explosion site at Ataturk airport on June 28, 2016 in Istanbul. (AFP Photo)
Police fired shots to try to stop two of the attackers just before they reached a security checkpoint at the arrivals hall, but they detonated their explosives, a Turkish official said.
"It became clear with this incident again that terrorism is a global threat. This attack, targeting innocent people is a vile, planned terrorist act," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters at the airport.
"There is initial evidence that each of the three suicide bombers blew themselves up after opening fire," he said, adding that they had come to the airport by taxi and that preliminary findings pointed to ISIS responsibility.
The vast majority of those killed were Turkish nationals but foreigners were also among the dead, the official said.
There are no reports of any Indians injured in the attacks.
Vikas Swarup, the spokesperson of the ministry of external affairs, has tweeted a series of emergency numbers for Indians looking for help in Turkey.
The numbers are: +90-530-5671095/8258037/4123625/. "The first secretary, Embassy of India, Ankara can also be contacted at 05303142203," Swarup said.
Reuters
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