Dead Victims Number Rise to Fifty
Dead Victims Number Rise to Fifty
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ISTANBUL - After three suicide bombs in Istanbul Attaturk Airport, the eye witnesses described that terrifying moment. Three suicide bombers launched a co-ordinated attack on Istanbul airport that has left at least 41 dead saying there was blood and body parts everywhere.
Shocking footage has shown an explosion at the door to the arrivals hall by a suicide bomber before another two attackers snuck into the building and dentonated their devices.
Twenty three of the victims were Turkish citizens and 13 foreign nationals were also among the casualties, an official has said. A total of 41 people have already been confirmed dead, but Turkish officials said that number is expected to rise to 50.
READ MORE: Istanbul Ataturk Airport Attacked Three Suicide Bombs
This morning the airport has re-opened while investigators piece together what happened, just hours after the attacks, which also left 239 people injured.
One of the passengers who was travelling through Ataturk airport at the time of the blasts was Laurence Cameron, a British cameraman who was travelling from Latvia to Izmir, on the Turkish coast.
And he believes believes his plane had arrived just as the bombs began to detonate. As he walked into the terminal, unaware of what had just happened, he was met with chaos, panic and fear.
"It must have been just as we touched down. I did not even hear the explosions, but as I walked out and round the corner, the whole building was running screaming towards me," he told MailOnline.
"It was just mass panic, guards running around with guns,"
Cameron, originally from Kent, was stuck for half an hour, waiting at customs, before he and his fellow passengers were allowed through and out the terminal.
However, the only way to leave the building was to go through the very place where the bombs had been detonated less than an hour before.
"There was blood on the floor. It was just horrendous. Debris everywhere. A lot of the ceiling panels had fallen down, smashed all over the floor. Coming out to the taxi rank, it was just full of ambulances. Blood was smeared all up to the car park. People were in tears, especially people with families. They were quite clearly traumatised. There was a lot of uncertainty, no one really knew what was going on. Were we safe where we were?," he said.
"There is nowhere to go but out through passport control (if you are in an airport terminal). It’s not nice – it should be safe, but at that moment it was not," he added.
Two women hold each other at the entrance to Istanbul's Atatruk airport after being evacuated / AP
South African tourists, Paul and Susie Roos from Cape Town, were also at the airport and due to fly home at the time of the explosions and were making their way up to the departure hall, a floor above arrivals.
"We came up from the arrivals to the departures, up the escalator when we heard these shots going off. There was this guy going roaming around, he was dressed in black and he had a hand gun," Roos told to news agencies.
"We came right to international departures and saw the man randomly shooting. He was just firing at anyone coming in front of him. His face was not masked. I was 50 metres away from him," he added.
"We ducked behind a counter but I stood up and watched him. Two explosions went off shortly after one another. By that time he had stopped shooting. 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," he said.
"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," another witness, Ali Tekin, who was at the arrivals hall when the attack took place said.
A German woman named Duygu, who was at passport control entering Turkey, said she threw herself onto the floor when she heard 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," she said outside the airport.
"Somebody came and shot at us and then my sister was running. I don't know which way she was running and after that I was falling down. I was on the ground till he finished... I can't find my sister," another witness, Otfah Mohamed Abdullah told AFP.
Roads around the airport were sealed off for regular traffic after the attack and several ambulances could be seen driving back and forth. Hundreds of passengers were flooding out of the airport and others were sitting on the grass.
Hevin Zini (12) had just arrived from Duesseldorf, Germany, with her family and was in tears from the shock.
"There was blood on the ground. Everything was blown up to bits... if we had arrived two minutes earlier, it could have been us," she told The Associated Press.
Shocking footage has shown an explosion at the door to the arrivals hall by a suicide bomber before another two attackers snuck into the building and dentonated their devices.
Twenty three of the victims were Turkish citizens and 13 foreign nationals were also among the casualties, an official has said. A total of 41 people have already been confirmed dead, but Turkish officials said that number is expected to rise to 50.
READ MORE: Istanbul Ataturk Airport Attacked Three Suicide Bombs
This morning the airport has re-opened while investigators piece together what happened, just hours after the attacks, which also left 239 people injured.
One of the passengers who was travelling through Ataturk airport at the time of the blasts was Laurence Cameron, a British cameraman who was travelling from Latvia to Izmir, on the Turkish coast.
And he believes believes his plane had arrived just as the bombs began to detonate. As he walked into the terminal, unaware of what had just happened, he was met with chaos, panic and fear.
"It must have been just as we touched down. I did not even hear the explosions, but as I walked out and round the corner, the whole building was running screaming towards me," he told MailOnline.
"It was just mass panic, guards running around with guns,"
Cameron, originally from Kent, was stuck for half an hour, waiting at customs, before he and his fellow passengers were allowed through and out the terminal.
However, the only way to leave the building was to go through the very place where the bombs had been detonated less than an hour before.
"There was blood on the floor. It was just horrendous. Debris everywhere. A lot of the ceiling panels had fallen down, smashed all over the floor. Coming out to the taxi rank, it was just full of ambulances. Blood was smeared all up to the car park. People were in tears, especially people with families. They were quite clearly traumatised. There was a lot of uncertainty, no one really knew what was going on. Were we safe where we were?," he said.
"There is nowhere to go but out through passport control (if you are in an airport terminal). It’s not nice – it should be safe, but at that moment it was not," he added.
Two women hold each other at the entrance to Istanbul's Atatruk airport after being evacuated / AP
South African tourists, Paul and Susie Roos from Cape Town, were also at the airport and due to fly home at the time of the explosions and were making their way up to the departure hall, a floor above arrivals.
"We came up from the arrivals to the departures, up the escalator when we heard these shots going off. There was this guy going roaming around, he was dressed in black and he had a hand gun," Roos told to news agencies.
"We came right to international departures and saw the man randomly shooting. He was just firing at anyone coming in front of him. His face was not masked. I was 50 metres away from him," he added.
"We ducked behind a counter but I stood up and watched him. Two explosions went off shortly after one another. By that time he had stopped shooting. 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," he said.
"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," another witness, Ali Tekin, who was at the arrivals hall when the attack took place said.
A German woman named Duygu, who was at passport control entering Turkey, said she threw herself onto the floor when she heard 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," she said outside the airport.
"Somebody came and shot at us and then my sister was running. I don't know which way she was running and after that I was falling down. I was on the ground till he finished... I can't find my sister," another witness, Otfah Mohamed Abdullah told AFP.
Roads around the airport were sealed off for regular traffic after the attack and several ambulances could be seen driving back and forth. Hundreds of passengers were flooding out of the airport and others were sitting on the grass.
Hevin Zini (12) had just arrived from Duesseldorf, Germany, with her family and was in tears from the shock.
"There was blood on the ground. Everything was blown up to bits... if we had arrived two minutes earlier, it could have been us," she told The Associated Press.
(rnz)
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