WASHINGTON — (CNN) At least 50 people have been killed and 60 others injured in the attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told CNN.
The two suicide bombers were also killed. Bozdag said one attacker “first opened fire with a Kalashnikov then detonated himself” at the airport entrance.
In total two bombs exploded. One of them was located just outside the terminal on the pavement, the other was at the security gate at the entrance to the airport.
Authorities said no bombs exploded within the airport building itself, according to the minister
— A Turkish official told CNN that police fired shots at suspects near the international terminal in an effort to neutralize them.
— Videos posted on social media show travelers sitting on the airport floor. A man shouts, “Get down! Get down!” Someone cries as a gunshot rings out.
Two explosions and gunfire rocked Istanbul Ataturk airport Tuesday, Turkey’s semi-official news agency Anadolu reported.
The ministry reported multiple injuries, but the exact number was not immediately clear.
The report says the explosions occurred in the international departures area of the airport.
Video on Turkish television showed a string of ambulances and fire trucks at the scene as authorities scurried under crime-scene tape.
Turkey has been rocked by a string of terror attacks over the past year as it weathers bombing campaigns carried out both by ISIS and Kurdish militants.
As part of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, Turkey allows coalition planes to fly raids on ISIS targets in neighboring Iraq and Syria from its territory.
And last year Turkey resumed hostilities with the PKK, Kurdish militant separatists, in earnest after a two-year cease fire broke down.
The PKK, or Kurdistan Worker’s Party, has been in an armed struggle with the Turkish government for decades and is considered a terror group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
In March, at least 37 were killed when a car bomb detonated near a bus stop in the Turkish capital, Ankara, in an attack claimed by a Kurdish militant group.
Six days later an ISIS suicide bomber detonated himself on one of Istanbul’s main streets, killing four.
A month earlier, 28 were killed in a blast targeting military vehicles in central Ankara.
A Kurdish group claimed responsibility.
And in January, at least 10 German tourists died in a suicide bombing in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet Square that Turkish authorities linked to ISIS.
The violence has had an impact on Turkey’s tourism industry, a key sector of the national economy.
Developing story – more to come
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