Three suicide bombers opened fire before blowing themselves up at the entrance to the main Istanbul airport on Tuesday, killing 36 people and wounding dozens more.
Police fired shots to try to stop two of the attackers just before they reached a security checkpoint at the arrivals hall at 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. Several witnesses reported two explosions but Sahin said authorities believed there may have been three suicide bombers.
“There was a huge explosion, extremely loud. The roof came down. Inside the airport it is terrible, you can’t recognize it, the damage is big,” said Ali Tekin, who was at the arrivals hall waiting for a guest when the attack took place.
