Two men detained for firing shots at Turkey airport

Two men were detained after they fired shots into the air at the Kamal Ataturk Airport of the Turkish capital on Sunday, media reported.

The shooting occurred when thepolice tried to stop the two men on a motorcycle at the main entrance of the airport, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The duo disobeying stop warning opened fire into the air," Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin tweeted, adding the two men were detained later.

The firing prompted the authorities to bar people from moving in and out of the airport for a while.

The police did not find any explosive on the men, said the governor.

According to local media, one of the men is Turkish while the other is a Syrian national.

The Ataturk Airport came under triple suicide bombing attacks in late June, in which 44 persons were killed.

The firing occurred at a time when the situation has been tense in Turkey in the wake of the arrest of nine lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party, including the party's co-chairs.

The authorities blamed them for not appearing in a terrorism investigation, a charge the detainees denied.

Hours after the detention on Friday, a car bomb was detonated in Diyarbakir city, killing at least 11 persons and injuring 100 others.

--IANS

sm/vt