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Agencies
ISTANBUL
At least 28 people have been killed in a triple suicide attack at Istanbul's Ataturk international airport, the city's governor said late on Tuesday.
"Three suicide bombers carried out an attack. Twenty-eight people have lost their lives. There are also 60 people injured," Vasip Sahin told journalists.
The attacks took place on Tuesday evening near a security check at the entrance to the arrivals terminal. There were reports of explosions and gunfire, according to witnesses.
Police fired shots to try to stop the attackers just before they reached a security checkpoint at the arrivals hall of the Ataturk airport but they blew themselves up, one of the officials said.
Speaking in parliament, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said that based on initial information he could only confirm there had been one attacker.
"According to information I have received, at the entrance to the Ataturk Airport international terminal a terrorist first opened fire with a Kalashnikov and then blew themself up," he said in comments broadcast by CNN Turk.
There was no immediate claim of responsbility for the attack. Ataturk is Turkey's largest airport and a major transport hub for international travellers. Pictures posted on social media from the site showed wounded people lying on the ground inside and outside one of the terminal buildings.
A witness told Reuters security officials prevented his taxi and other cars from entering the airport at around 9:50 pm. Drivers leaving the terminal shouted"Don't enter! A bomb exploded!"from their windows to incoming traffic, he said.
Television footage showed ambulances rushing to the scene. One witness told CNN Turk that gunfire was heard from the car park at the airport. Taxis were ferrying wounded people from the airport, the witness said.
The head of Red Crescent, Kerem Kinik, said on CNN Turk that people should go to blood donation centres and not hospitalws to give blood and called on people to avoid main roads to the airport to avoid blocking path of emergency vehicles.
Authorities halted the takeoff of scheduled flights from the airport and passengers were transferred to hotels, a Turkish Airlines official said. Earlier an airport official said some flights to the airport had been diverted.
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29/06/2016
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