Three suicide bombers opened fire, before blowing themselves up at Istanbul's Ataturk airport on Tuesday, killing 36 people and wounding close to 150. Turkey's prime minister Binali Yıldırım said the attack appeared to have been executed by the Islamic State (IS) militants.
Three suicide bombers opened fire, before blowing themselves up at Istanbul's Ataturk airport on Tuesday, killing 36 people and wounding close to 150. Turkey's prime minister Binali Yıldırım said the attack appeared to have been executed by the Islamic State (IS) militants.
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 at Ataturk, which is said to be the third-busiest airport in Europe was one of the deadliest in a series of suicide bombings in Turkey, which is a part of the US-led coalition against Islamic State and is struggling to contain the spillover from neighbouring Syria's civil war.
(Reuters)
1. Victims being transported to Bakirkoy Sadi Konuk Hospital
)
A wounded girl at the Ataturk Airport is carried to the hospital, in the early hours of June 29 in Istanbul. (Photo courtesy - Getty Images)
2. Paramedics deployed for rescue ops
)
Ambulances arrive as relatives of victims wait outside Bakirkoy Sadi Konuk Hospital. (Photo courtesy - Getty Images)
3. Clearing the blast debris
)
Workers clear debris from the blasts at Turkey's largest airport, Istanbul Ataturk. (Photo courtesy - Reuters)
4. Forensic experts working to extract more information
)
Forensic experts work outside Turkey's largest airport, Istanbul Ataturk. (Photo courtesy - Reuters)
5. Security beefed up
)
A riot police officer stands guard at the entrance of the Ataturk airport in Istanbul, Turkey, following a multiple suicide bombing. (Photo courtesy - Reuters)
6. At the explosion site
)
Broken windows are pictured after the attacks and explosions at Ataturk airport's international arrivals terminal. (Photo courtesy - AFP)
7. A victim's mother mourns outside the ariport
)
A mother of one of the victims killed in a suicide bombing and gun attack at Istanbul's airport, cries on June 29, 2016 in Istanbul
8. Evacuated passengers wait outside the airport
)
People gather outside Istanbul's Ataturk airport, early Wednesday, June 29, following its evacuation after a blast. Suspected Islamic State (IS) group extremists have hit the international terminal of Istanbul's Ataturk airport, killing dozens of people and wounding many others, Turkish officials said Tuesday. (Photo courtesy - PTI)
