A huge fire engulfed the cargo section of Istanbul’s international Atatürk airport on Wednesday. Black smoke billowed high into the air, television footage showed. The fire caused panic at the airport, and authorities were trying to evacuate hundreds of people from nearby terminals.
Firefighters were trying to extinguish the blaze and planes doused the flames with water from air. There was no word on the cause of the fire, but Kaya Heyse, a producer for CNN’s sister network CNN Turk, said some officials suggested it could have been accidental, according to CNN.com.
Heyse told CNN the fire was being contained in the cargo C section of the airport but was threatening a hotel near the airport.
Private NTV television said some cargo workers may have been trapped inside the blazing cargo building, but an airport management official said there were no casualties in the fire that erupted in terminal C, which is located at some distance to the international and domestic flights terminal.
Several ambulances were also dispatched to the area, but it was not immediately clear whether there were any injuries.
No flights have been suspended, the airport official added.
The airport is located 15km south-west of the city centre and is named in honour of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic.
The airport’s international terminal is considered one of the most efficient and modern terminals in the world, according to Wikipedia.com.
Atatürk shares traffic with Sabiha Gokcen International airport, which is located on the Asian side of Istanbul. It handled more than 573 000 tonnes of cargo traffic as well as 15,6-million passengers in 2004.