Sydney resident Javier Camelo was one of 17 tourists, a Tunisian citizen and a policeman reported dead in the attack on the Bardo Museum, famed for its collection of ancient artefacts. Rescue workers move an empty stretcher towards the museum. Credit:AP The foreigners included five Japanese, four Italians, two Colombians and one each from France, Poland and Spain, Mr Essid said on national television on Wednesday. The nationality of a 16th victim was not given, while the final one had not yet been identified. The toll was revised downward from an earlier figure of 20 in what Mr Essid said was a definitive toll.

The statement from the Australian government condemned the violence, calling it a "terrorist attack on a fledgling democracy", and said the incident underlined "the terrorist threat to Australians at home and abroad". A victim is evacuated outside the Bardo Musum in Tunis. Credit:AP In the attack, gunmen in military uniforms fired on the tourists as they got off a bus and chased them inside the museum. Eight people were killed as they got off the bus, an Interior Ministry spokesman said; 10 more were taken hostage and then killed. "They just started opening fire on the tourists as they were getting out of the buses ... I couldn't see anything except blood and the dead," the driver of a tourist coach said. Tourists and visitors from the Bardo Museum are evacuated. Credit:AP

Security forces later advanced into the museum and killed two gunmen in a firefight, state television reported. Mr Essid said the authorities were hunting for possible accomplices. Local media reported it was possible a third gunman was involved A damaged bus is seen after the attack. Credit:Reuters European Union Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said Islamic State militants, who have become particularly active in neighbouring Libya, were behind the attack. "The EU is determined to mobilise all the tools it has to fully support Tunisia in the fight against terrorism," she added.

Tunisian security forces secure the area after gunmen attacked the Bardo Museum. Credit:AFP However, no group had claimed responsibility for the attack by early evening. An Interior Ministry spokesman said that the gunmen had probably been Tunisians, but their nationality had not been confirmed. Tunisian officials said it was possible that the Parliament, rather than the museum, was the original intended target of the attack. Security forces secure the area after gunmen attacked Tunis' famed Bardo Museum. Credit:AFP President Beji Caid Essebsi denounced the killings as a "horrible crime".

Museum employee Dhouha Belhaj Alaya said she heard "intense gunfire" about noon. Police officers outside Parliament in Tunis. Credit:Reuters "My co-workers were screaming 'Run! Run! Shots are being fired!' " she said. "We escaped out the back door with co-workers and some tourists." French tourist Fabienne recounted how she and others hid in one of the museum's galleries with their guide.

"We couldn't see anything, but there must have been a lot of them. We were afraid that, at any moment, they would come kill us," she told France's BFM television. Wednesday's assault was the worst attack involving foreigners in Tunisia since an al-Qaeda suicide bombing on a synagogue killed 21 people on the tourist island of Djerba in 2002. The museum is a leading tourist attraction that chronicles Tunisia's history and houses one of the world's largest collections of Roman mosaics. World reaction White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the US was prepared to offer assistance to Tunisian authorities in their investigation of the attack and "will continue to stand with our Tunisian partners against terrorist violence. We extend our deepest sympathies to the victims of today's heinous violence in Tunisia and condemn in the strongest terms this terrorist attack, which took the lives of innocent Tunisians as well as visiting tourists."

US Secretary of State John Kerry denounced the "wanton violence". British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Twitter: "Appalled by sickening terrorist attack in Tunis - my thoughts are with those affected. UK stands ready to support Tunisia." French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said: "I condemn this terrorist attack in the strongest terms. There has been a hostage-taking, without doubt tourists have been affected, killed .... This attack cruelly illustrates the threat that we are all confronted with in Europe, in the Mediterranean, around the world. France, Tunisia and Europe will act together to fight terrorism." French President Francois Hollande expressed French "solidarity" with Tunisia. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos confirmed on Twitter that two Colombian citizens were among the victims of the attack.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called the violence "a cowardly attack on us all", saying he "cannot rule out there being German citizens among the victims". Loading More to come AFP, agencies