Turkey: Suicide bombers hit Istanbul’s Ataturk airport

According to international press reports, three suicide bombers detonated their explosives at the airport after police opened fire on them. A witness has reported that one of the attackers had randomly opened fire as he walked through the terminal building.

The final death toll was calculated at 36 and 147 people have been injured, reports said on Wednesday morning. Most of the casualties were Turkish citizens. An official stated to the press that some foreign nationals were also among casualties.

No terrorist groups have claimed responsibility for the attack.

“It is clear that this attack is not aimed at achieving any result but only to create propaganda material against our country using simply the blood and pain of innocent people”, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a written statement.

All outbound flights have been cancelled, while most of the inbound flights have been diverted.

Ataturk Airport is the third busiest European airport after London’s Heathrow and the Charles De Gaulle in Paris, serving more than 60 million passengers in 2015.

Over the past year Turkey has suffered several attacks blamed on Kurdish separatists or the Islamic State (IS) group.