Ataturk airport attack: At least 28 reported dead

A gun and bomb attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk international airport has killed at least 28 people and injured others, with reports of at least one suicide bomber.

At least 20 people were also wounded with casualties being reportedly rushed to hospital in taxis.

Police reportedly opened fire to stop the suspects at an entry point.

It appears that the attackers detonated explosives at the entrance to the international terminal.

Recent bomb attacks in Turkey have been linked to either Kurdish separatists or the so-called Islamic State group.

Turkish media report that two suicide bombers were involved in Tuesday’s attack.

It looks like a major, co-ordinated attack at the airport, BBC’s Mark Lowen at Ataturk airport reports.

The airport was long seen as a vulnerable target, our correspondent says. There are X-ray scanners at the entry to the terminal but security checks for cars are limited.

‘Armed with a Kalashnikov’

Flights were stopped from taking off following the attack, an official for Turkish Airlines was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

“Ten people have been killed according to a preliminary toll,” Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said in the capital, Ankara.

“According to the information I was given, a terrorist at the international terminal entrance first opened fire with a Kalashnikov and then blew himself up,” the minister added, according to the Associated Press.

In December, a blast on the tarmac at a different Istanbul airport, Sabiha Gokcen, killed a cleaner. That attack was claimed by a Kurdish group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK).

Security concerns and a Russian boycott have hit the country’s tourist sector this year.

On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologised for the downing of a Russian military jet on the Turkey-Syria border last year, the act which sparked the boycott.

Last year, Ataturk overtook Frankfurt airport to enter  the top three busiest airports in Europe  after London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle.

More than 61 million passengers travelled used the airport in 2015.

A US State Department travel warning for Turkey, originally published in March and updated on Monday, urges US citizens to “exercise heightened vigilance and caution when visiting public access areas, especially those heavily frequented by tourists.”

Wole Shadare