Cruel Scenes at Istanbul Airport taxi rank

The airport of Istanbul was shattered by explosions yesterday evening. At least 41 people were killed during the attack, more than 150 people got hurt. According to several reports three suicide bombers entered the departure hall. Security has tried to ward off the attack.

The pictures in the media are devastating. One of the pictures shows a man running away with a child in his hands – possibly a driver of a taxi. That’s inherently cruel.

Reactions in Social Media didn’t take long. A colleague from Frankfurt posted in the ‘Taxi International Facebook Group’: “Istanbul – I’m speechless, furious, full of sorrow and deeply devastated about the coward attack of the Atatürk airport. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone on-site, the victims and their relatives!” A colleague from Berlin replied: “My deepest condolences to the berieved. Four colleagues died during the attacks at Istanbul.”

But there’ve been some plain words towards those drivers in Istanbul that exploited the attack and tried to make big money from the shocked passengers: ”While drivers in Paris and Brussels took many, many tours for free, some drivers in Istanbul wanted a flat rate charge of 100$, preferring tourists than locals. Unbelievably they’ve used the tragedy to make money, blood money.

In other networks, such as Twitter, the passengers reacted: “Some a**hole taxi drivers  wanted 100$ to get away from the Istanbul airport. Normally it’s 20$. They’ve expolited the stranded.“  A reply on Facebook: „What a unbelievable shame for our profession!”