Police fire at suspicious minivan at Istanbul airport

Turkish police opened fire at a suspicious minivan outside Istanbul's Ataturk Airport early Saturday and launched a manhunt after the vehicle fled away, local media reported.

Police fired at the wheels of a white panel van as its driver did not obey the stop warning at the checkpoint at the main entrance to the airport, the Hurriyet daily said.

The vehicle with three people on board managed to escape by taking the opposite direction with a u-turn, the daily said, adding the police were hunting the van.

Police have been on high alert as the metropolis has been hit by a number of terror attacks over the last year, including one on a nightclub on New Year's Day that left 39 people dead and triple suicide bombing attacks on Ataturk Airport in late June that killed 44. Endit