South African tells of taking cover during Turkish airport attack

A South African told of being about 50m away from a gunman “randomly shooting” during the suicide attack at Turkey’s largest airport that left more than 30 people dead and up to 150 wounded on Tuesday.

Three suicide bombers reportedly opened fire‚ then blew themselves up in Istanbul’s Ataturk airport in what Turkish authorities said was an attack by Islamic State militants.

Also read: 36 killed in Istanbul airport bombings as PM blames IS

Passengers were sent fleeing for cover in the airport’s departures hall when the bombers opened fire with automatic rifles before moving to the arrivals hall‚ where the bombs went off.

Paul Roos‚ a 77-year-old who was on his was home to South Africa after a holiday in southern Turkey‚ told Reuters that he saw one of the attackers “randomly shooting”.

“He was wearing all black. His face was not masked‚” said Roos.

“We ducked behind a counter but I stood up and watched him. Two explosions went off shortly after one another. By that time he had stopped shooting‚” Roos added.

“He turned around and started coming towards us. He was holding his gun inside his jacket. He looked around anxiously to see if anyone was going to stop him and then went down the escalator... We heard some more gunfire and then another explosion‚ and then it was over.” – TMG Digital