He was walking like a prophet

A petrified honeymoon couple hugged each other inside a hair salon cupboard as shots rang out outside, praying the gunmen rampaging through Istanbul's airport would not find them.

Other survivors crouched under check-in counters frantically weighing up whether to stay put or flee.

Amid the chaos, some watched the horror unfold on smartphones or told their stories live on social media. Many were left not knowing for hours whether loved ones were alive or dead.

Otfah Mohamed Abdullah was checking her luggage in when she saw one of the attackers pull out a hidden gun and begin shooting.

"He's shooting up, two times, and he's beginning to shoot people like that, like he was walking like a prophet," she told AFPTV.

"... and then my sister was running I don't know which way. She was running and after that I was falling down, I was on the ground until he finished. Until now I can't find my sister and I don't have anything, everything (I have) is inside."

Japanese woman Yumi Koyi was waiting for her flight to Tokyo when the attacks began and she was swept up in a scramble to escape. "I heard gunshots so it was really panicking, everyone together."

Latvian businessman Rihards Kalnins told AFP that those inside the terminal had no way of knowing what was happening.

"There was just panic about what was going on. People were running, screaming. I didn't know what was going on. At first I thought it was a fight or something like that. I had no idea.”

New York-based Iraqi journalist Steven Nabil said he was on his way home from his honeymoon when he was caught up in the drama, which he depicted in a series of Tweets. He had left his wife in a cafe while he went to get food on a different floor. "Heard shots, ran fast toward her," he wrote.