NEARLY 30 people have been killed and at least 60 wounded after explosions rocked Istanbul's Ataturk airport.

Three suicide bombers who were reportedly armed with Kalashnikov rifles are understood to have blown themselves up after police fired at them.

Some 28 people have been killed and 60 injured, according to reports.

Turkish media said an explosion hit a control point at the international arrival terminal of the airport.

Other media reported the sound of gunfire at the scene.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said: "According to the information I was given, a terrorist at the international terminal entrance first opened fire with a Kalashnikov and then blew himself up."

Eyewitness Ercan Ceyhan said that he had seen some 30 ambulances enter the airport.

The casualties, believed to include police officers, were taken to Bakirkoy State Hospital.

Although the airport in Istanbul does not serve the main tourist resorts in the south-west of the country which are popular with British holidaymakers, many package holiday firms organise day trips from the coastal hotspots to the Turkish capital via Ataturk airport.

The nationalities of the dead and injured are not yet known.

Turkey has suffered several bombings in recent months linked to Kurdish or Islamic State (IS) militants.

The bombings included two in Istanbul targeting tourists - which the authorities have blamed on the IS group.

The attacks have increased in scale and frequency, scaring off tourists and hurting the economy, which relies heavily on tourism revenues.

Recent bomb attacks in Turkey have been linked to Kurdish separatists or the so-called Islamic State group.

Security concerns and a Russian boycott have hit the country's tourist sector this year.

Last year, Ataturk overtook Frankfurt airport to enter the top three busiest airports in Europe after London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle.

More than 61 million passengers travelled used the airport in 2015.

A US State Department travel warning for Turkey, originally published in March and updated on Monday, urges US citizens to "exercise heightened vigilance and caution when visiting public access areas, especially those heavily frequented by tourists."