Gunman Kills 39 During Attack at Tunisian Tourist Resort
Two gunmen opened fire at a Tunisian beach near two tourist resorts Friday morning, reportedly killing at least 37 people.
The shooting took place in the town of Sousse, a popular destination for British tourists. Sky News reports receiving a photograph showing a man “in his 60s or 70s lying in a pool of blood in his swimming shorts.” A photo that matches that description was posted to Instagram and geo-tagged to a hotel near the beach.
David Schofield, a British tourist, told Sky News there was a “loud explosion” followed by chaos.
“We heard people saying there were guns on the beach. People were shooting on the beach,” he said. “People are running around the hotel. No-one has really been told what to do.”
Another tourist, John Yeomann, reportedly witnessed the attacks and has barricaded himself inside his hotel room.
There has been a shooting on the beach at our hotel it's been going on for 20 mins
June 26, 2015
We were in the pool when we heard automatic gun fire. People ran past saying there was an armed man on the beach
June 26, 2015
Hope it's enough pic.twitter.com/XaW4yTpplU
June 26, 2015
Interior Ministry Spokesman Mohammed Ali Aroui told the Associated Press that one of the gunmen was killed at the scene; the other shooter fled the scene and remains at large. Aroui also said that the death toll will likely rise.
UPDATE 1:18 pm: The death toll from the shooting now stands at 37. Another 36 people were wounded in the attack, according to the Associated Press.
UPDATE 9:05 am: The attack took place near Hotel Bellevue and the Royal Kenz Hotel. “We heard people were shot on their sunbeds,” one hotel guest told Sky News.
UPDATE 6/27: Tunisian authorities now say only one gunman was involved in the attack, the death toll from which now stands at 39. Seifeddine Rezgui, a 23-year-old Tunisian student, reportedly chased tourists from the Sousse into the Imperial Marhaba Hotel. From the New York Times:
The only words he uttered were to tell Tunisians to get away. It was tourists, he made clear, he wanted to kill. Many of them were British, like Christine Callaghan, a middle-aged woman from Norfolk, England.
“Something was not right,” she said, describing the moment she first heard the gunshots as she lay with her husband by the pool. “It was very long and very loud,” she said, from her hospital bed on Saturday. “My husband screamed out: “Quick, run!”
Panicked, the tourists fled in their bathing suits into the hotel through the dining room, piling up mattresses in a corridor for protection, and barricading themselves into a banquet hall as they heard gunfire and explosions.
