Turkish guide prevented more casualties in Istanbul attack

Eyüp SERBEST - Burcu Purtul UÇAR / ISTANBUL

A Turkish tourist guide prevented more casualties in the deadly Jan. 12 terrorist attack in Istanbul’s touristic Sultanahmet neighborhood after warning tourists to flee the area at the time of the blast, which killed 10 German tourists and injured 15 others.

Sibel Şatıroğlu, the guide of a group of German tourists, told security officials that she witnessed the moment of attack and warned tourists in the area by shouting “lauft weg,” which means “run away” in German.

“A thin ‘click’ sound was heard among the group, as I was informing a group of around 20-25 tourists about the Obelisk [of Theodosius]. I realized that the sound was not normal so looked around. I saw a young man in modern clothes with a goatee, who looked just like a Turkish citizen, pulling the pin. I shouted ‘run away’ in German and we began to run. The bomb had already exploded,” Şatıroğlu said. 

She was slightly wounded in her feet and suffered a loss of hearing after the attack, but still assisted at hospitals to which the injured were taken. She was later present at a Jan. 14 event commemorating the victims of the blast.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) suicide bomber has been identified as 28-year-old Nabil Fadli, a Syrian national born in Saudi Arabia who recently appealed to a district directorate of migration management to seek asylum in Turkey.