For Siti Zarinah Mohd Yusoff, having to walk for almost 10 kilometres to a hotel where she had stayed in Istanbul, Turkey was a terrifying experience after train services in the city came to a halt during an attempted military coup on Friday.

The 50-year-old housewife, who was in Turkey to visit her daughter studying in the country, said the incident occurred when she and seven other tour group members were taking a train at 10pm after they went for shopping.

She said they decided to walk back to their hotel after the train had suddenly stopped in the middle of nowhere before it reached Sultanahmet station and that all roads were closed.

"While walking for over two hours, we did not even bother to look behind or stop although (we were) tired because we were too scared. Helicopter were hovering in the air and there were repeated sound of gunshots.

"At that point of time, we could only pray so that we would arrive at the apartment safe and sound," she told reporters when met at KLIA in Sepang today.

Siti Zarinah, together with 39 other Malaysian tourists from the same tour group, had arrived at KLIA on Qatar Airways flight QR846 via Doha, Qatar at 3.50pm.

Another tour member, Mohd Sukki Othman, said they only found out about the real situation when they reached the hotel, after they were informed by Malaysian students over there.

The religious speaker, better known as Ustaz Shauki, said he was grateful when the botched military coup had came to end in a short period of time and the situation was recovering.

"On that evening, we saw people took the streets from our apartments' windows... they were sounding horn and the mosques had performed azan (call for prayers).

"On the next day, Istanbul was back to normal as if nothing had happened and no major destruction could be seen in the city," he said.

According to media reports, the Turkish government had announced on Saturday that it foiled the attempted military coup to topple its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

- Bernama