A gun and bomb attack in Istanbul's main international airport on Tuesday killied 36 people and wounded close to 150.
Three suicide bombers opened fire and later blew themselves up at the entrance of Istanbul's main international airport, in one of the worst terror attacks in Turkey. The Ataturk international airport was closed for a few hours but it re-opened at around 8.30 am (Singapore time).
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the attackers came to the airport by taxi and that preliminary findings showed Islamic State militants were behind the attack, Reuters reported.
A Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight to Istanbul turned back to Singapore after the deadly suicide attack. The SIA flight, SQ392 departed Changi Airport at 1.35 am with 201 passengers and 14 crew members on board. It was flying above India when it made a u-turn, showed data from FlightRadar24.com.
"This attack, targeting innocent people is a vile, planned terrorist act," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said."
"There is initial evidence that each of the three suicide bombers blew themselves up after opening fire," he told reporters.
The attack was similar to the one that was carried out by Islamic State militants at Brussels airport in March, which killed 16 people.
Witnesses said the attack started with random shooting in the departures hall. "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," a witness 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."
