At least 37 people, mostly tourists, killed in attack on beach near Imperial Marhaba hotel

At least 37 people have been killed in a gun attack on a beach in front of hotels in the Tunisian resort of Sousse, in the country’s bloodiest day since the 2010 revolution.

Tunisia’s health ministry said the dead included British, German and Belgian tourists, as well as Tunisians. The Irish government said an Irish woman was also killed. Thirty-six people were injured.

Witnesses reported that gunmen opened fire on the beach between the Soviva and Imperial Marhaba hotels. Officials said one gunman had been shot dead but there are unconfirmed reports that another may be on the run.

Tunisia’s interior ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Aroui described the attack as terrorism.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tunisian beach shortly after terror attack – video.

The country’s secretary of state for security said the dead gunman was a student previously unknown to police. “He is Tunisian, originally from the Kairouan region,” Rafik Chelly told Mosaique FM radio. “This person was not known [to us].”

“He entered by the beach, dressed like someone who was going to swim, and he had a beach umbrella with his gun in it. Then when he came to the beach he used his weapon.”

Tunisian radio had reported earlier that most of those caught up in the gunfire were British or German tourists. Locals are less likely to go to the beach during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

A security source at the scene said the body of one attacker, armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, lay where police had shot him dead.

The attack in Tunisia came on the same day that a man was decapitated and several others injured in an attack with apparent Islamist connections at a factory in France. In Kuwait, Islamic State claimed responsibility for an explosion that struck a Shia mosque capital after Friday prayers.

Tunisia has been on high alert since March when Islamist militants attacked the Bardo museum in Tunis, killing a group of foreign tourists.

Sousse, 93 miles (150km) from Tunis, is one of Tunisia’s most popular beach resorts, drawing visitors from Europe and neighbouring north African countries.

Speaking in Brussels, the British prime minister, David Cameron, offered “our solidarity in fighting this evil of terrorism”.

“The people who do these things, they sometimes claim to do it in the name of Islam,” Cameron said. “They don’t. Islam is a religion of peace.” He said the attackers acted from “a twisted and perverted ideology we have to confront with everything we have”.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest David Cameron responds to terror attacks in Tunisia and France – video.

Elizabeth O’Brien, an Irish woman on holiday with her two sons at the resort, described how she grabbed her children and ran when they heard gunfire coming from one of the hotels.

“We were on the beach; my sons were in the sea and I just got out of the sea. It was about 12 o’clock and I just looked up about 500 metres from me and I saw a [hot air] balloon collapse down, then rapid firing, then I saw two of the people who were going to go up in the balloon start to run towards me,” she told RTE Radio.

Gary Pine, a British tourist, told Sky News he was on the beach and heard what “we thought was firecrackers going off” 100 metres away, followed by an explosion from the neighbouring hotel complex.

“There was a mass exodus off the beach,” Pine said, adding that his son told him he had seen someone get shot on the beach. Pine said guests at his hotel were initially told to lock themselves in their rooms, and later to gather in the lobby.

Steve Johnson, who is staying at the Imperial Marhaba hotel, said: “We were just laying on the beach as usual … Me and my friend said: ‘That’s guns, let’s go’ and we shouted to everybody around us who joined the sort of mass rush from the beach. People were running in all directions around us.”

Johnson said that after reaching his hotel, “we tried to organise people to get themselves concealed away from windows and got the staff to lock up the doors”. “We stayed there until we started to see armed police officers on the site and waited until we were told it was safe to come out,” he added.

He said the authorities were removing a number of bodies from around the pool area.

Several disturbing pictures of two bodies lying in the sand on a hotel beach have been posted on social media, one covered by a towel, another in blue swimming shorts.

Police are still clearing the area and have warned people to stay indoors.

One hotel worker described seeing an attacker open fire with a Kalashnikov. “He was a young guy dressed in shorts like he was a tourist himself,” he said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Imperial Marhaba hotel in Sousse. Photograph: Anna Stowe Travel/Alamy

The British Foreign Office said it was urgently investigating the situation.

At least one airline said it would cancel Friday’s flights to Tunisia, turning around one flight mid-air which was headed for Enfidha airport, closest to Sousse.

JetAir, part of the TUI group, said it had turned around flight JAF5017 from Brussels “due to current terrorist attack in Tunisia”. In a second statement on Twitter, the company said it would be suspending its flights to the country.

Thomas Cook said in a statement that it was trying to ascertain if its customers were affected. “At this time, details are not clear as to which property(ies) have been affected, with conflicting news reports. Our teams on the ground are offering every support to our customers and their families in the area. We will continue to monitor the situation, working closely with the FCO and local authorities.”

A spokeswoman for Thomson and First Choice said they were trying to determine if their properties in Tunisia were affected and to provide assistance to any customers who might be caught up in the attack.

The Spanish company that owns the Hotel Riu Imperial Marhaba in the Port El Kantaoui neighborhood of Sousse said it is in “permanent contact with authorities” to get information about affected guests.