RICHMOND, Va. – The scenery behind Richmonder Gabrielle Tenney stands in stark contrast to the chaotic, bloody scene at the Ataturk Airport in Turkey, where she had been just hours before two suicide bombers and a third attacker armed with guns.
At least 41 people were killed in the attack at the Istanbul Ataturk airport, and over 239 injured.
Tenney is in Greece right now, on a Mediterranean graduation trip with family and friends.
"Our flight left from Istanbul to Athens around noon,” she said.
Gabrielle spoke with CBS 6 over Skype
"We got here and the guy at the hotel said, 'I don't know if you know this, but there was just an attack on the Ataturk airport,'" Tenney said. “We just were in shock we had nothing to say.”
“We just felt so fortunate,” she added.
Tenney visited Istanbul once before in 2014 and said she plans to go back someday.
She said the crowds were lighter this time, considering the multiple terrorist attacks there this year.
Although she never felt threatened, Tenney did take some advice from locals.
"Don't go to crowded areas, like the Taksim square,” she explained. “Try to stay out of the really touristy areas.”
Gabrielle and friends at the Ataturk Airport in Turkey.
She said she's not scared to travel because if she let attacks like the one Tuesday influence her plans, then the extremist groups would get what they want.
The attack hasn't rattled Tenney's love for Istanbul, which she said is beautiful. She said Wednesday that she was reminded of a quote from a French writer.
“If one had a single glance to give the world, one should gaze on Istanbul,” Tenney said. “He is so right because it's such a magical city.”
She'll travel back to Richmond through Ataturk airport, her perspective on seeing the world unchanged by the violence she narrowly missed.
"We all want to essentially live in peace, and I just hope that comes one day,” she said.
Victims from around the world
Many of the 41 dead were Turkish, including 10 airport staff members, Sener said.
The attack killed six Saudis and wounded 27 more, the Saudi Arabian foreign ministry said.
The other victims included two Iraqis, one Tunisian, one Chinese, one Iranian, one Ukrainian, one Jordanian and one person from Uzbekistan, a Turkish official said. Three of the foreigners had dual Turkish citizenship.
Of the 239 people wounded Tuesday night, 128 remained hospitalized Wednesday, officials said.
Who's responsible?
While no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, "all information and evidence" points to ISIS, Interior Minister Efkan Ala said. "But nothing is for certain."
And Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said initial findings "suggest all three attackers first opened fire then detonated themselves."
That method is similar to the mass shooting and suicide bombings at Paris' Bataclan concert hall last November. ISIS claimed responsibility for that massacre, which left 89 people dead.
ISIS has a history of airport attacks. In March, it claimed responsibility for dual suicide bombings at the main airport in Brussels, Belgium. At least 10 people died in those blasts.
And just like the Brussels attack, the terrorists in Istanbul took a taxi to the airport.
The Istanbul taxi driver was interviewed by police and later released, the Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported.
The director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, using another acronym for the Islamic State, said he thinks the terror attack "certainly bears the hallmarks of ISIL's depravity."
John Brennan said he wasn't surprised that ISIS hasn't said it was responsible. The group rarely takes credit for attacks in Turkey.
"I think what they do is they carry out these attacks to gain the benefits from it in terms of sending a signal to our Turkish partners," he told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, "(and at) the same time not wanting to potentially maybe alienate some of those individuals inside of Turkey that they may still be trying to gain the support of."
Lots of blood, broken glass
The cacophony of gunfire Tuesday night was quickly followed by the deafening blows of three explosions.
Witness Sue Savage said about 30 people were herded into a women's prayer room until authorities led them out and down an escalator into the main terminal hall.
"There was a lot of blood," she said. "There was so much glass on the floor, they were scuffing it aside so we didn't slip."
Video from inside the terminal shows the bright orange flash of fire from one of the explosions. Victims stagger. Some fall on the slippery, blood-covered floor.
Another video shows a gunman dropping his weapon when he's apparently shot by a security officer. The man slumps to the ground, and the officer briefly stands over him before running.
About 10 seconds later, a bomb detonates.
The three terrorists
The assailants have not been identified, but there is a "strong suggestion that they are foreign," a senior Turkish government source told CNN.
Experts say Turkey is especially vulnerable due to the variety of terrorists operating there.
"You cannot protect these airports 100% ... especially in a place like Turkey, where ISIS has cells everywhere," said retired Lt. Col. Rick Francona, a former U.S. military attaché in Syria.
Even though Ataturk Airport is "one of the most secure airports in the world," CNN senior law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes said, the airport has been "very overwhelmed for several decades with terrorism from PKK."
ISIS promised an uptick in attacks during the holy month of Ramadan, which is nearing its end.
And the terror group has reason to detest Turkey: The country is helping the U.S.-led coalition attack ISIS targets in neighboring Iraq and Syria. Turkey allows coalition planes to fly raids from its territory.
Adding to the instability: Last year, Turkey resumed hostilities with the PKK, Kurdish militant separatists, after a two-year cease fire broke down.
But over the last few months, "the Turks have really changed their focus from only the PKK to going after ISIS as well," Francona said.
8 attacks so far this year
Turkey has spent much of this year reeling from terror attacks as it weathers bombing campaigns by both ISIS and Kurdish militants.
The attack marked the eighth suicide bombing event in Turkey this year. At least 140 people have been killed.
The violence has also rattled Turkey's tourism industry, a key sector of the national economy. About 39.4 million people visit each year.
Analyst: Retaliation 'with full war' possible
If ISIS is responsible for the attack, Turkey likely "will retaliate with full war," said Soner Cagaptay of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute.
"I would expect that Turkey's vengeance will come down like rain from hell," he said. "For Turkey now, fighting the so-called Islamic State is going to be priority number one."
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for a unified international fight against terrorism following the attack.
"Make no mistake: For terrorist organizations, there is no difference between Istanbul and London, Ankara and Berlin, Izmir and Chicago or Antalya and Rome," he said.
CNN's Nima Elbagir and Gul Tuysuz reported from Istanbul; CNN's Holly Yan and Joshua Berlinger reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Steve Almasy, Rebecca Wright, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Ross Levitt, Catherine E. Shoichet, Nimet Kirac, Bharati Naik and Emily Smith contributed to this report.
