At least 5 British Tourists and an Irish woman died in the attack. Philip Hammond, the British foreign secretary, said the British death toll was likely to rise.
The terror attack took place at about midday in the resort of Sousse, 93 miles (150km) south of Tunis on the country’s east coast. Tourists fled from the beach and barricaded themselves in their hotel rooms after a gunman opened fire on the crowded beach before moving into the pool area of the five-star Imperial Marhaba hotel while firing at tourists, witnesses said.
One suspected gunman was shot dead at the scene, and reports suggested another suspect was apprehended. The attack came on the same day as a bomb exploded at a Shia mosque in Kuwait City, killing 27 people, and a man was decapitated in France following an attack in which a man apparently tried to blow up a factory belonging to a US gas company in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, near Lyon. French police found flags at the factory with Arabic inscriptions following the attack.
Mohamed Ali Aroui, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said: “The perpetrator of the operation was killed, but ... there could have been more of them. Whether there were other elements with him, we can’t confirm or deny.”
The Hotel, where the shootings took place, said the majority of the 565 guests at the hotel were from the UK and central European countries.
One couple from Kent told the Guardian they had been relaxing on their sunbeds when they heard what they believed at first to be fireworks, and saw a man running along the sand with what looked like a machine gun.
“He was shouting something, I don’t know what he was shouting,” said Glenn Whitehead, a scaffolder from Swanley, Kent. He shouted at his wife Anita to run, as bullets flew around them. A person lying next to them fell dead, he said.
The couple heard bullets close to their head, and Mrs Whitehead tripped in the sand as others ran, screaming beside them. Staff from the hotel’s spa beckoned them inside, where about 20 other tourists and staff were waiting.
The couple said they waited for perhaps 20 minutes before they were led outside by staff, to find bodies lying by the hotel pool and in the foyer, amid pools of blood.
“I looked around the beach and all I could see were dead people covered in towels,” said Mr Whitehead. There was also a body on the sunbed next to the ones they had been using. “Where we were lying were a German mother and daughter. When I got back one of them was covered over, dead.”
“There was a lot of people who couldn’t get off their sunbeds,” his wife said. “They were elderly.”
Witnesses told the Guardian that a British man had been killed while sunbathing on the beach as his wife packed their bags in their room ahead of their planned departure on Friday.
Another British woman described how her fiancé was shot three times as he lay next to her on a sunbed, using his own body to shield her from the bullets.
Sarah Wilson, from Pontypridd in south Wales said her partner, Matthew James was shot as the gunman opened fire, throwing himself in front of her before urging her to run for her life. He survived the assault but suffered wounds to his shoulder, chest and hip.
“We were just on the sunbeds, messing around and having a nice time when we heard these sounds. The shooting had started and there was a man with a gun opening fire all around. It is hard to remember just exactly what was going on,” she said. “I only saw the one man in dark clothing but people were being shot.
“Matthew put himself in front of me then he was hit, he moved and the man shot him again. Again he tried to move and he was shot again. He was shouting and blood was pouring out all over. I was screaming and it was chaos as more shots were coming out.
“We were down on the floor next to the sunbeds to shelter but the shots just kept on coming. He just told me to go, to look after our kids and that he loved me.”
She fled to the hotel and hid in a cupboard until it was safe to emerge, hunting for two hours on the beach until she learned James had been taken to hospital, where he had life-saving surgery.
“There are bodies everywhere, some covered in blankets and some not. You can’t imagine how bad it is.”
