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Melville residents narrowly escape deadly terror attack on Turkish airport

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Josh ZimmermanMelville Gazette

A GROUP of Melville travellers are still counting their lucky stars after narrowly avoiding a terror attack on a Turkish airport that left 48 dead and more than 230 people injured.

Helloworld Melville owner Lee Moore and 26 travellers she accompanied on a Mediterranean ocean cruise arrived in Istanbul on June 26.

Most of the group arrived through Ataturk Airport just two days before the attack.

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“We arrived on June 26 and spent that day and half of the next day touring around Istanbul,” Mrs Moore said.

“On the afternoon of the 27th we got onto the cruise ship and headed off for Anzac Cove in Gallipoli which is where we were when we found out about the terrorist attack.

“Someone saw the news on their iPad and it just went like wildfire through the rest of the group with everyone getting online.

“It was a total shock for two reasons; one because we had just got out of that area and two because we all realised what a massive impact it would have on the Turkish people that rely on tourism.”

Mrs Moore was on her third trip to the country and said there were already noticeably fewer tourists before the attack.

“Since the attack a lot of cruise ships have stopped going to Istanbul altogether,” she said.

“We visited the Turkish port of Kusadasi and the ruins at Esphesus in the days following the attack and the shopkeepers just had nothing to do.”