ISTANBUL, Turkey, 29 Jun - (ANA) - Three explosions rocked Istanbul's Ataturk airport last in a suspected suicide attack in which a total of 36 people are confirmed dead and 147 injured. The death toll is expected to rise to 50, according to Turkish officials. Turkish news agencies citing police sources say ISIS is to blame for the attack. Turkish Airlines is the official airline partner of the Euro 2016 football tournament currently being held in France. Witnesses said the co-ordinated attack left blood and body parts everywhere. The 'vast majority' of victims in the attack were Turkish nationals but foreigners were also among the casualties, an official has said.

One of the passengers who was travelling through Ataturk airport at the time of the attacks was Laurence Cameron, a British cameraman who was travelling from Latvia to Izmir, on the Turkish coast. Two South African tourists, Paul and Susie Roos from Cape Town, were also at the airport and due to fly home at the time of the explosions. 'We came up from the arrivals to the departures, up the escalator when we heard these shots going off,' Mr Roos told news agencies. 'There was this guy going roaming around, he was dressed in black and he had a hand gun.' He added: 'We came right to international departures and saw the man randomly shooting. He was just firing at anyone coming in front of him. His face was not masked. I was 50 metres away from him. '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. '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.' Another witness, Ali Tekin, who was at the arrivals hall when the attack took place, said: 'There was a huge explosion, extremely loud. The roof came down. Inside the airport it is terrible, you can't recognise it, the damage is big.' A German woman named Duygu, who was at passport control entering Turkey, said she threw herself onto the floor when she heard the sound of the explosion. Several witnesses also reported hearing gunfire shortly before the attacks. 'Everyone started running away. Everywhere was covered with blood and body parts. I saw bullet holes on the doors,' she said outside the airport. Another witness, Otfah Mohamed Abdullah, told AFP: 'Somebody came and shot at us and then my sister was running. I don't know which way she was running and after that I was falling down. I was on the ground till he finished... I can't find my sister.'

Roads around the airport were sealed off for regular traffic after the attack and several ambulances could be seen driving back and forth. Hundreds of passengers were flooding out of the airport and others were sitting on the grass. Hevin Zini, 12, had just arrived from Duesseldorf, Germany, with her family and was in tears from the shock. 'There was blood on the ground,' she told The Associated Press. 'Everything was blown up to bits... if we had arrived two minutes earlier, it could have been us.' Meanwhile eyewitnesses have also described the moment a hero policeman shot down one of the suicide bombers before he was able to detonate his explosives, giving holidaymakers a chance to escape and saving countless lives.(ANA)

FA/ANA/29 June 2016--------