Carnage at Istanbul airport

[newcastle]

****BREAKING NEWS*****



A gun and suicide bomb attack on Istanbul's Ataturk international airport has killed at least 28 people and injured up to 60.
The Istanbul governor gave the new toll after reports of 10 fatalities.

Up to three attackers were involved, with one reportedly opening fire with a Kalashnikov as they targeted an entry point to the terminal.
Recent bombings in Turkey have been linked to either Kurdish separatists or the so-called Islamic State group.
Tuesday's airport attack looks like a major, co-ordinated assault, says the BBC's Mark Lowen at the scene.

Ataturk 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.

Flights in and out of the airport were suspended after the attack.
Taxis were used to rush casualties to hospital in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
The state-run Anadolu agency said around 60 people had been wounded, six of them seriously.
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).

Ambulances flocked to the airport after the explosion

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."

[Horus]

Sky are reporting the death toll at "nearly 50"

[carrie]

BBC reporting 30, reports seem confusing at the moment, no surprise there.
Terrible thing to happen again and condolences to all those involved in this tragic event.
Yildez I have every intention of visiting next year. Hope you are OK and all your friends.

[Dusak]

Is this the airport that some of the 'visa leavers' spend an overnighter before reentering Egypt?

[LovelyLadyLux]

WOW - been travelling all day myself and this is the first I've heard about this.......WOWWWW NOT GOOD

[HEPZIBAH]

Another horrific attack on innocent people. For what purpose? Another sad day for so many.

[carrie]

This is not the airport that Pegasus flies into Dusak.

[Yildez]

This is Istanbuls main airport, with the second - Sabiha Gocen - on the Eastern side of the city. It's a very big airport, and I've always felt safe there. My guess is that most of the casualties were just inside the entrance waiting to go through the security/bag search point; as I understand from the Turkish media, the bombers did not get into the main Arrivals hall thank goodness. It's a very busy airport especially now as many families are starting the Bayram (end of Ramadan)holidays early.

Friends of mine were flying out last night at the same time, but from the other airport thank goodness. Dreadful waste of life, by those professing to be religious yet perpetrating this outrage in the Holy Month.

Tourism is drastically down in Turkey already, due to previous terror attacks; this will just exacerbate the problem. Of course, this is exactly what these murderers want.

[LovelyLadyLux]

What is the solution? Do nothing? Join them? Attack militarily ISIS/ISIL/Daesh? OR go after the ideology?

Then think "how"....

[Dusak]

The Turkish authorities must take the bulk of the blame for those dead and injured. According to an ''insider'' they considered this airport ripe for such an attack, yet failed to do the simplest of things, like search all taxis entering the area.

[LovelyLadyLux]

The Turkish authorities must take the bulk of the blame for those dead and injured. According to an ''insider'' they considered this airport ripe for such an attack, yet failed to do the simplest of things, like search all taxis entering the area.

Absolutely NOT. ISIS/ISIL/DAESH are FULLY RESPONSIBLE - PERIOD.

[newcastle]

It's difficult - in fact impossible - to give 100% protection to a public building to which large numbers of people have access. All the authorities can do is take a many precautions as are sensible and feasible.

Nowadays it is quite routine in major cities, and at venues which are obvious terrorist targets, to search incoming vehicles and persons but, in reality, there is a limit to what you can do.

It appears that searching of vehicles entering Attaturk airport was either absent or very deficient, and this is a serious lapse on the part of the authorities for which they should be criticised.

Interestingly, when driving into Hurghada airport yesterday, my car & the contents of the boot were examined with a good deal more care than is usual and the passengers also had their passports examined. It looked as if the lesson of Attaturk had been taken to heart.

[HEPZIBAH]

Is stopping and searching vehicles really an option for many major airports? I think not. Can you imagine the chaos that would cause if, for example, all the taxi's arriving at London Heathrow or Gatwick airports were stopped and searched. The same goes for all the coaches and buses that deliver passengers to the doors of the departure and arrivals halls.

We live in a world where we are all having to think more about security, but we are also still very keen not to waste time or spend extra money, and there is no doubt that extra security measures do make journeys longer and do ultimately cost us more money, one way or another.

[Horus]

I would agree with Hepzi, it would be an impossibility at major airports. Here in the UK taxis are only allowed to drop off or to park away from the airport with a limited time to enter again and collect passengers. The baggage hall will always be the most vulnerable area because at that point you cannot determine what anyone's intentions actually are, there are people parking vehicles to pick people up and taxis coming in to collect people. For it to be foolproof you would need to have everyone walk the last half mile completely naked and their clothes and baggage going on a separate conveyor with a 100% search of everything and even then I bet someone will get through.

[Dusak]

The Turkish authorities must take the bulk of the blame for those dead and injured. According to an ''insider'' they considered this airport ripe for such an attack, yet failed to do the simplest of things, like search all taxis entering the area.

Absolutely NOT. ISIS/ISIL/DAESH are FULLY RESPONSIBLE - PERIOD.

If you leave your door wide open for anyone to walk in, then the person that left it open is responsible for those walking though it and what actions they produce. Period.

[Stevepj]

The Turkish authorities must take the bulk of the blame for those dead and injured. According to an ''insider'' they considered this airport ripe for such an attack, yet failed to do the simplest of things, like search all taxis entering the area.

Absolutely NOT. ISIS/ISIL/DAESH are FULLY RESPONSIBLE - PERIOD.

If you leave your door wide open for anyone to walk in, then the person that left it open is responsible for those walking though it and what actions they produce. Period.

Those who took the moral decision to walk into an airport carrying Kalashnikovs and wearing suicide vests to carry our mass slaughter are responsible for the carnage, nobody else. Why does it never seem to be the responsibility of the perpetrators D?

[newcastle]

Nobody is saying a terrorist attack is NOT the responsibility of the perpetrators Of course it is....100%.

It is also the responsibility of those charged with the protection of our safety to make every effort to protect us and minimise the likelihood of a terrorist attack being successful.

I see no contradiction in these statements.

[HEPZIBAH]

It is also the responsibility of those charged with the protection of our safety to make every effort to protect us and minimise the likelihood of a terrorist attack being successful.

I agree with you, but I have to question at what point is 'every effort' reached. What is really reasonable to expect when it comes to such things as Airport Security.

Not so long ago I read the account of someone who had returned to the UK for a visit and they were comparing airport security between an Egyptian airport and one in the UK. One of their main criticisms of the UK was that bags were not scanned on entry into the airport buildings. Of course, it is clear to see that putting baggage scanners at the entrance to the departure halls could be a good security measure, but only if people scanners were put there too. This would significantly slow down the volume of people traffic entering the building, so to reduce that a 'Passengers Only' rule could be put in force, as happens in Luxor. As Departures and Arrivals are all linked and easily accessible to all, it would also mean that non travelling persons (families and friends) should not be allowed into the Arrivals Hall. And so it goes on. Some would see these as positive security measures, whilst others would be more concerned about other issues. In new build airports it may be possible to implement many of the earlier security measures, but just how feasible are they in long established , large, working to capacity airports? I don't have the answers, I just see lot's of potential problems that would take an awful lot of money and disruption to change.

[Horus]

As I said earlier, short of making everyone walk up naked to the airport without luggage and every piece of baggage scanned in a bomb proof room by robots, then you will never stop a determined terrorist attack and even then someone will stuff a bomb up his backside and detonate it at the airport entrance. Terrorism is just that, the unexpected murderous behaviour of someone with a grievance, so until we are able to scan someone's mind for such traits then we can never be more than one step ahead of their actions.

[newcastle]

Of course a balance has to be achieved between what is practicable and what is desirable.

Performing a thorough search of incoming vehicles to a major airport is likely to be impractical......unless there is a very specific and imminent threat.

Curiously, Attaturk DOES have car screening, some 500 metres from the airport building. It clearly didn't catch these guys.