Theresa May to chair emergency Cobra meeting over what PM called ‘savage’ killings by Islamic State terrorist of at least 39 tourists

The UK home secretary, Theresa May, is to chair a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee on Sunday morning as it became clear that British tourists bore the brunt of the Tunisian beach attack by an Islamic State extremist.

Fifteen Britons died in the shooting in the coastal city of Sousse but the toll could rise further, the Foreign Office said on Saturday, in what it called “the most significant terrorist attack on the British people” since 7 July 2005.

The Foreign Office minister, Tobias Ellwood, said: “At least 15 British nationals were killed in [Friday’s] atrocity, but I should stress that the number may well rise as several more have been seriously injured in this horrific attack.”

He said the act of “evil and brutality” demonstrated why this kind of extremism had to be confronted, whether it happened in the UK or abroad.

The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice to warn that further terrorist attacks in Tunisia are possible and urged people to be vigilant.

The number of British holidaymakers confirmed to have been killed by the lone gunman on Friday rose steadily on Saturday.

The prime minister, David Cameron, warned earlier that the UK public needed to be prepared for the total to rise.

Tunisia beach attack: the victims Read more

A total of 39 people were killed, including three Irish citizens, with one Belgian and a German also among the victims.

At least 1,000 holidaymakers arrived back in the UK on Saturday. Cameron said a full deployment team of consular staff, police and experts from the Red Cross would arrive in Tunisia on Saturday to help the victims and added that the government was doing all it could to assist them.



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The PM said: “These savage terrorist attacks in Tunisia, Kuwait and France are a brutal and tragic reminder of the threat faced around the world from these evil terrorists.”

The UK’s terror threat level remains at “severe”, the second-highest level, meaning an attack is highly likely.

Mark Rowley, Metropolitan police assistant commissioner and national policing lead for counter-terrorism, said it was “fairly clear” that the location of the Tunisian attack was chosen because of the number of westerners present.

A large number of officers had been sent to the resort, to gather evidence and help the Tunisian authorities, he said.

The Tunisian prime minister called for all citizens to work together to defeat terrorism as thousands of tourists prepared to leave the north African country in the wake of its worst terrorist attack.



Tourists crowded into the airport at Hammamet near the coastal city of Sousse where a young man dressed in shorts on Friday pulled an assault rifle out of his beach umbrella and killed 39 people, mostly tourists.

“The fight against terrorism is a national responsibility,” Essid said on Saturday. “We are at war against terrorism which represents a serious danger to national unity during this delicate period that the nation is going through.”

He announced a range of tough measures to fight extremism, including examining the funding of organisations suspected of promoting radicalism, closing about 80 mosques outside government control and declaring certain mountainous zones military areas.



Essid identified the gunman, who was killed by police after the attack, as Seifeddine Rezgui, a young student at Kairouan University from the town of Gaafour in the governorate of Siliana.

The Site Intelligence Group reported that Isis had claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack on its Twitter account, referring to the gunman by his jihadi pseudonym Abu Yahya al-Qayrawani. Isis Twitter accounts have published a photograph purporting to be Rezgui posing between two Kalashnikovs and smiling.





Meanwhile, more survivors’ stories and details of the victims began to emerge. The British tourist Tom Richards, who faced the gunman in a hotel corridor, described him as being in his early 20s with long black hair and a beard. Richards, who was there with his mother, escaped when the gunman inexplicably stopped firing.



Tunisia attack: 'He looked right at me – I thought I was dead,' says tourist Read more

Matthew James survived being shot three times when he used his body to shield his fiancée, Saera Wilson, during the shooting.

Ross Thompson and Rebecca Smith, from Coventry, were recovering after receiving shrapnel injuries. “We managed to get the room barricaded, got down low and just hid,” Thompson said.

Smith said she became separated from Thompson and hid in toilets with another woman and her son: “We locked ourselves in and hoped for the best.”

Dave Beardsmore, from Manchester, told Sky News: “We ran for our lives. I heard bullets going over the top of my head; I just kept on running and we went to our room.”

Tony Callaghan, who works for Norfolk police at North Walsham, and his wife were injured in the attacks. They both needed hospital treatment but their injuries were not life-threatening.



One of those killed has been named as Lorna Carty, a nurse and mother of two from County Meath in Ireland. She had been in the resort with her husband, Declan, who had recently undergone heart surgery. It is understood the couple were given the holiday as a present from a family member to help with his recuperation.

Conor Fulford, from Staffordshire, had posted a photo on Twitter of his mother, Sue Davey, who was staying in Sousse, in a bid to locate her. He later confirmed his mother was among the victims. He tweeted: “Hi Everyone, Sorry to tell you we lost my mother Sue Davey tonight but i want to thank everybody that tried to help me & my family”.

The killings took place on the beach between the Soviva and Imperial Marhaba hotels in the town of Sousse, a popular destination for tourists from the UK and Ireland.

They came on the same day that a suicide bombing at a Shia mosque in Kuwait killed 27 worshippers and wounded a further 220 in an attack that was later claimed by Isis.

The attack in Tunisia was the country’s worst and follows a massacre on 18 March at the national Bardo museum in Tunis that resulyed in the deaths of 22 people, again mostly tourists, and has called into question the newly elected government’s ability to protect the country.

The carnage in Tunisia began on the beach, where tourists described hearing what sounded like fireworks and then ran for cover when they realised it was gunfire. Video of the aftermath showed medics using beach chairs as stretchers to carry away people in swimsuits.

The Tunisian interior minister, Rafik Chelli, said of the gunman: “He had a parasol in his hand. He went down to put it in the sand and then he took out his Kalashnikov and began shooting wildly.” He then entered the pool area of the Imperial Marhaba hotel before moving inside, killing people as he went.

A British tourist, Gary Pine, told AP he was on the beach with his wife around midday when heard the shooting. They shouted for their son to get out of the water, grabbed their bag and ran for the hotel. Their son told them he saw someone who had been shot on the beach.

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There was sheer panic at the hotel, Pine said. “There were a lot of concerned people, a few people in tears with panic and a few people – older guests – they’d turned their ankles or there was a few little minor injuries and nicks and scrapes.”

Elizabeth O’Brien, an Irish tourist who was with her two sons, told Irish radio she was on the beach when the shooting began. “I thought, ‘Oh my God. It sounds like gunfire,’ so I just ran to the sea, to my children and grabbed our things” before fleeing to their hotel room, she said.

Since overthrowing its secular dictator in 2011, Tunisia has been plagued by terrorist attacks, although only recently have they targeted the tourism sector, which makes up nearly 15% of GDP.

Simon Calder, a London-based travel commentator, said: “The Foreign Office will declare the summer effectively over for Tunisia, and it will destroy – besides the lives taken – the tens of thousands of livelihoods who depend on tourism for a living.” Nearly half a million Britons visited Tunisia in 2014.

Jonathan Hill, professor of defence studies at King’s College London, said the attacks were a blow to Tunisia’s image as a stable, democratic nation emerging from its revolution in 2011. “The terrorists are attacking Tunisia’s reputation,” he said. “Not just as a safe and welcoming destination for western holidaymakers, but as the one real success story to emerge out of the Arab Spring.”