“First I heard the gunfire, then the explosions. Two of them,” said Koray Arslan, who was at the nearby domestic terminal nearby. They were very powerful. I could feel the tremors under my feet.”

Airport closed to incoming flights

Turkish media said about 60 people were injured. The airport was closed to incoming flights after the explosions, while some planes have been diverted to other destinations, according to the state airport authority.

Islamic State is likely responsible for the killings, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in televised remarks after late Tuesday’s attacks. Once an affiliate of al-Qaeda, Islamic State carried out beheadings and crucifixions as it took parts of Syria and northern Iraq. While losing ground in recent months, it is striking abroad more frequently and claimed responsibility for similar airport attacks in Brussels in March.

The country has been hit by spillover from the civil war in neighboring Syria, where Islamic State controls territory along the Turkish border. The army is also fighting an escalating war with separatist Kurdish rebels.

Violence scaring off tourists

The spread of violence in Turkey is scaring off tourists. Last month saw the biggest slump in visitor numbers on record.

The Istanbul airport attack is “yet another reminder, as if any was needed, that Turkey faces the perfect storm of terrorist threats,” Anthony Skinner, a director with U.K.-based forecasting company Verisk Maplecroft, said by e-mail.

The lira trimmed gains after the reports of the explosions. It was trading at 2.9038 per dollar at 11:22 p.m. in Istanbul.

Vulnerability of airport lobbies

The attack is also the latest to target airports and the aviation industry in the Middle East and Europe, coming three months after suicide bombers struck Brussels airport. It serves as reminder of the vulnerability of airport lobbies and other public places where large numbers of people congregate, said Hans Weber, an aviation consultant in San Diego.

“The probability of copycat attacks goes way up high after one of those attacks,” said Weber, who advised the U.S. federal government on airport security issues following the Sept. 11 attacks. “From a terrorist perspective, Brussels was a success. You can see how they would be motivated to copy that.”

Last year, a Russian passenger jet was brought down over the Sinai Peninsula after taking off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. Islamic State’s affiliate in Egypt claimed responsibility for the incident.

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