National Post ePaper

PASSENGERS HOLD PROTEST AFTER SNOW CLOSES ISTANBUL AIRPORT

Claim they were stranded with no food

ISTANBUL • Turkish police deployed briefly to Istanbul’s main international airport Tuesday, after passengers stranded there because of an unusually heavy snowfall staged what appeared to be a protest in the airport’s cavernous departure hall.

Passengers chanting “we need hotel” marched through the hall, near the duty free shop and luxury stores, according to a spokeswoman for the airport and videos posted on social media by passengers, some of whom said they had been stranded in the facility for more than a day with no help from staff and no provision of food or water.

Other videos posted by local news channels showed dozens of police officers in the departure hall, as the chanting continued. A spokeswoman for the airport said that the officers worked at the facility, and had not been brought in from outside.

Heavy snow beginning

Sunday evening blanketed Istanbul, snarling roads and briefly halting ship traffic through the Bosporus. By Tuesday, local authorities had banned private cars from roads and told public servants to stay home.

Officials at Istanbul airport, which is among the world’s biggest airports, announced Monday evening that flights would be suspended until early Tuesday morning due to “adverse weather and heavy snowfall.” The roof of a temporary cargo building used by Turkish Airlines collapsed due to the snow accumulation Monday but caused no injuries, an official from the company said.

The suspension of flights was later extended, until midnight Wednesday, as crews worked to clear what the airport said was 40 centimetres of accumulated snow on the runways and other parts of the airport using nearly 200 snow removal vehicles. On Tuesday evening, as videos of the protest and the police response circulated, the airport said on its Twitter account that it was providing free blankets and lunch boxes to passengers.

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2022-01-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

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