ISTANBUL (CIHAN) - An explosion occurred on board a plane on Tuesday afternoon at the Istanbul Atatürk Airport.
The blast occurred on a Turkish Airline Company plane following deboarding. Three people were injured, according to immediate reports. The bomb detonated when the cleaning crew opened a suspicious bag found on the plane.
One cleaning crewman, identified only as Özgür, lost several fingers. The worker was taken to the International Hospital. The others sustained slight injuries.
Security is a top priority in Turkey as world leaders are attending the NATO summit in Istanbul. The world leader will leave Istanbul today from Ataturk Airport where the blast occurred.
A bomb exploded in public bus in Istanbul last week and claimed the lives of 4 people including the female bomber and wounded 20 others. The blast was blamed on the ultra-leftist Marxist terror organization.
An explosion but not a bomb, occurred on Monday evening in the Turkish National Defense Ministry Fuel Oil Transfer Terminal and NATO Pool Facilities in Ankara.
Last Thursday, a percussion bomb detonated outside of the Ankara Hilton Hotel where US President George Bush stayed during his visit to Ankara, leaving three people including two police officers wounded.
Turkish police have taken unprecedented security measures for the NATO summit that brought the leaders of 46 countries including US President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac together in Istanbul.
Nearly three thousand delegates from 46 countries and 3500 journalists have been following the NATO Summit in Istanbul.
Nearly 20,000 security personnel are on duty for the summit.
Ships and boats of the Turkish Navy and Turkish Coast Guard patrolled the Bosphorus Strait of Istanbul which is under constant surveillance by the strait`s security cameras 24 hours a day for the summit.
Both the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles were closed to ships carrying explosive materials, arms and petrol from the early hours of Saturday.
A suicide bomb attack, carried out by two terrorists against a branch of the Grand Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons of Turkey, killed two people-including one of the terrorists-in the Asian quarter of Kartal, Istanbul in March 9, leaving 6 people injured.
A Turkish cell of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network carried out the deadly suicide attacks which targeted Jewish and British interests in Istanbul last November, killing 61 people and injuring over 750.