Warning over threat to British tourists in Turkey
Further attacks are likely after airport bombers kill 42, say officials
BRITISH holidaymakers in Turkey could be targeted by terrorists following the devastating attack on the country’s busiest airport, officials warn.
They say further attacks on tourists are likely after three suicide bombers opened fire on terrified passengers before blowing themselves up.
Survivors of the attack, in which 42 died and 239 were injured, said escaping from Ataturk airport in Istanbul felt like ‘walking through hell’.
The Foreign Office yesterday did not warn against travelling to Turkey but said the terror threat is high. It warned ‘further attacks are likely, could be indiscriminate and may target places visited by foreigners’. It also updated its advice to include a heightened risk of attacks on the aviation industry.
Davis Lewin, of The Henry Jackson Society think-tank, said the UK remains a prime target for the Islamic State terror group, which is thought to have orchestrated the airport atrocity. He added: ‘The international coalition must step up its efforts to impose a total defeat on this barbaric threat.’ More than 2.5million Britons a year visit Turkey, many of whom pass through Ataturk on their way to beach resorts.
But the country’s tourism industry – a vital source of income accounting for 5 per cent of GDP – has already been hit hard following a spate of attacks by groups including IS and Kurdish mili- tants. The number of tourists fell by 23 per cent in the first five months of this year.
Some British travel companies said sales were already down by 50 per cent and are bracing themselves for further hits, while some cruise ship firms have abandoned stops in Turkey.
The Association of British Travel Agents said anyone booked on a Turkish Airlines flight before 6 July to or from both Ataturk and Sabiha Gokcen, Istanbul’s second airport, can postpone up to the end of July or receive a full refund.
A Turkish interior ministry official last night gave a timeline of Tuesday’s attack at Ataturk, the third busiest airport in Europe.
One assailant opened fire and then blew himself up near security X-ray machines by the doors. A second went upstairs to the departures area and blew himself up, while the third waited outside and detonated his explosives last as passengers fled the terminal.
Questions have been raised about security at the airport as it emerged the bombers travelled there in a taxi, which should have passed through checks before reaching the terminal.
Chilling footage shows a man thought to be one of the terrorists strolling towards the terminal in a padded jacket, despite it being summer.
Another video shows a gunman being shot by police as he walked through the airport, after which he blew himself up. In other footage, families can be heard screaming as they run away after
‘There was blood on the floor’
the first blast. Passengers told how the floor of the terminal was covered in blood and body parts.
Cameraman Laurence Cameron, from Kent, who had just arrived at the airport, said: ‘The whole building was running screaming towards me.
‘It was just mass panic, guards running around with guns. There was blood on the floor. It was just horrendous. Blood was smeared all up to the car park.’
Witnesses also told how the men marauded through the airport firing indiscriminately.
South African tourist Paul Roos, who was due to fly home, said: ‘We saw [one] man randomly shooting. He was just firing at anyone coming in front of him. I was 50 metres away from him.’
The attack bore clear similarities to the atrocities in Belgium in March, when two IS suicide bombers struck at the city’s airport and another on the metro, killing 32.
Ataturk airport reopened yesterday nearly 12 hours after the attack, amid many delays and cancelled flights. Turkish prime minister Binali Yildirim said early investigations suggest IS was responsible though no group has yet claimed responsibility.
The dead included 23 Turkish nationals, five Saudi Arabians and two Iraqis. David Cameron described the attack as ‘hideous’, and said it does not appear any Britons were killed.
More than 200 people have been killed in attacks in Istanbul and the capital Ankara in the past year, including 12 German tourists in January.