Football's top governing body in the Europe, UEFA refused on Wednesday to hold minute of silence for Istanbul Atatürk Airport bombing victims ahead of Euro 2016 matches.



Rob Harris, a reporter from the Associated Press said that the top body refused to hold minute's science citing the reason that the attack was not "related directly" to football.

"UEFA says it holds minute's silence when tragedies are 'related to football directly, or to one of the participating teams or host country'" Harris said.

In contrary to the decision, UEFA allowed last year minutes of silence for Paris terror attack victims.

UEFA said last year that all teams playing in European internationals would wear black armbands, with a minute's silence held before kickoff in honor of the victims of the Paris attacks.

"UEFA… wishes to express its support and solidarity to France and to those affected by these horrible acts," the organization had said in a separate statement after attacks around Paris, including outside the Stade de France where France was playing Germany in a friendly.

UEFA's decision sparked outrage among Twitter users.

Users said that Turkey was one of the Euro 2016 competitors, and it would be a better idea to pay respects and offer condolences to the country and victims' families.

At least 42 people were killed, 130 injured Tuesday in a triple suicide bombing and gun attack at Istanbul's main Atatürk airport, in the latest deadly strike to rock Turkey's most-populated city, which had many similarities with the deadly attacks carried out in Brussels in March.

Flights partially resumed in the airport on Wednesday morning, while many of the schedule flights were cancelled or delayed.

Reports have said that one Ukrainian and one Iranian national was among those who were killed by the terrorist attack in the airport.

Among the 37 identified victims were 10 foreign nationals and three dual citizens, the Istanbul Governorate said in a statement on Wendesday.