Testimony about police units in Sousse resort to be heard as inquests resume into deaths of 30 Britons killed by gunman on beach in 2015

Police officers “deliberately and unjustifiably” slowed down on their way to a mass terrorist shooting on a Tunisian beach, an inquest into the deaths of 30 Britons killed in the atrocity has heard.

A report by a Tunisian judge contains testimony that law enforcement units in the resort town of Sousse purposefully delayed their arrival at the Imperial Marhaba hotel on 26 June 2015 as a gunman opened fire and killed 38 tourists, 30 of whom were British.

Resuming the inquests into the deaths at the beach resort of Sousse, Samantha Leek QC, the counsel to the inquests, said the holidaymakers had “needlessly lost their lives” in the mass shooting.

Leek’s remarks came after the coroner, Nicholas Loraine-Smith, asked interested parties, the public and press at the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice to stand in memory of those killed following a rollcall of their names.



Hundreds of tourists were sunbathing in 30C heat when jihadi Seifeddine Rezgui opened fire with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, which he had concealed within a parasol, in a rampage that lasted nearly 40 minutes. The Tunisian authorities shot Rezgui dead as he ran from the hotel.

Summarising the evidence to be heard, Leek said the inquest, which is set to last seven weeks, will hear from a report on a Tunisian investigation into the attack, compiled by the judge Lazhar Akremi.

An unnamed interior minister claimed police units delayed their response as the attack unfolded, the inquest heard. Leek said according to that witness “the police units, which should have intervened to stop the attack, deliberately and unjustifiably slowed down to delay their arrival at the hotel”. She said: “They had the ability to put an end to the attack before the police arrived but wasted a considerable amount of time in getting to the hotel.”

No further context was given during Monday’s proceedings to explain why the police officers are alleged to have slowed down.



Leek said the inquest would also hear testimony that would explain why some witnesses believed a second gunman was on the beach. A speedboat driver claims he picked up a gun dropped by a marine who lost consciousness when Rezgui detonated a grenade.

Rezgui detonated a number of explosives as he moved through the hotel, Leek said. He killed 20 people on the beach, eight in the hotel and 10 in the hotel grounds.



The attack came three months after Islamist militants attacked the Bardo National Museum in the Tunisian capital, Tunis. They killed 21 people – mostly European tourists – at the scene, and another victim died 10 days later.

Rezgui was a 23-year-old electrical engineering student at the University of Kairouan, from Gaafour in north-west Tunisia. It emerged he had received military training in Libya.

DS Mark Gower, of the Metropolitan police counter-terrorism

command, took the inquest through maps and video footage gathered to

assist the coroner.

A graphic CCTV clip from within the Imperial Marhaba hotel was shown of panicked holidaymakers rushing into the building with Rezgui in pursuit. The grainy footage shows at least one tourist falling to the ground as he is shot.

The inquest was told the clip showed the victim Bruce Wilkinson being fatally shot. Wilkinson, a 72-year-old father and grandfather, was on holiday with his wife, Rita.

Video footage was shown of the gunman being dropped off in a street near the hotel by a white Peugeot van before he sets off on foot clutching a parasol under his arm. It is now known the parasol was concealing his automatic weapon.

The inquest was then shown clips of Rezgui walking along the shoreline past moored boats before images of sunbathers fleeing the beach were shown. Some holidaymakers stumbled and fell as they struggled to run across the sand away from Rezgui.

Travel company Tui, which owns Thomson Holidays, through which all 30 of the Britons booked their trip, is expected to come under significant scrutiny over its handling of travel advice for Tunisia from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).



Lawyers representing families of 20 of the deceased Britons are to accuse Tui of “practically hiding and keeping out of the limelight” FCO warnings about terrorism in Tunisia, according to papers submitted in advance of the resumption of inquests.

The travel firm, which in the year to September made an underlying profit of €1bn (£866m), is also said to have sold customers travel insurance that excluded cancellation cover caused by terrorism risks.

Jane Marriott, an FCO official who at the time of the Sousse attacks was director of the Middle East and North Africa directorate, told the inquest that in the years before the Bardo and Sousse attacks the security situation in Tunisia was “getting worse”. The Bardo killings were seen as an atrocity that could inspire copycat attacks and radicalise others, Marriott said.

The day after the Bardo attacks a meeting was held with then foreign office minister Tobias Ellwood, to discuss the travel advice, in which the department said it wanted to see improvements in security in tourist areas. Ellwood concluded that the advice did not need to be changed.

However, the inquest heard that after the Bardo attacks travel advice was altered to include “more robust” language and a warning was added that further attacks were “a possibility”.

Ambassadors met representatives from tourist areas including Sousse who reassured them that security around hotels and beaches had been increased.

Marriott told the inquest that the FCO had a dialogue with travel firms and tour operators, and travel firms could inform the FCO on security and safety trends they noticed on the ground in countries.

Before the Sousse attack, Tui is said in submissions by the families to have discouraged cancellation by penalising customers up to the full cost of their booked holidays if they chose to cancel as a result of learning of terrorist activities or risks.

Tui is to argue that the measures it had in place at the time for forwarding travel advice were appropriate but the Sousse attack changed the climate and it responded accordingly.

Some evidence may be considered behind closed doors due to sensitivity for the prevention of future terrorist attacks, following an application by the FCO.



The inquests continue.