Attack on hotels in Tunisia kills dozens

Conor Fulford, from Tamworth in England’s Staffordshire, had pleaded for help to find his mother Sue Davy after seeing images of her being taken from the scene of the massacre on a stretcher,

In a series of heartbreaking tweets, Conor Fulford revealed his 44-year-old mother, who had been staying at the Imperial Hotel in Sousse with her partner Scott Chalkley, 42, had lost her life.

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 ...

— Conor Fulford (@ConorFulford) June 27, 2015

My mom was a strong women who didn't take no crap from nobody so when you lie down tonight wish my mom goodnight as I know i sure will xxxxx

— Conor Fulford (@ConorFulford) June 27, 2015

Love you always Mom, I've got my teddy bear you got me tonight, Rest easy xxxx

— Conor Fulford (@ConorFulford) June 27, 2015

Earlier, Mr Fulford told The Mirror of his frustration in his desperate search for his beloved mum.

“The Foreign Office said 20 flights have left today to return to Britain but they are not on the planes,” he said.

“I’m devastated, nobody is helping me, I’ve rang up hospitals, I’ve rang around hotels and I don’t even know what to do anymore.”

Meanwhile, more chilling images have emerged of the Islamic State gunman, who heartlessly laughed as he murdered at least 38 sunbathing tourists.

Aby Yahya al-Qayrawani — the jihadi name for 23-year-old Seifeddine Rezgui, was seen walking down the beach with his Kalashnikov, a weapon which had been concealed inside a beach umbrella, before he opened fire.

He was walking away from the attack with a grenade in his other hand.

WARNING: Graphic images below may upset readers

The killer, a Tunisian engineering student — who was later shot dead police — had disguised himself as a tourist at the time of the massacre.

Tourists described him as “very, very calm” during the attack.

Tunisia’s Prime Minister, Habib Essid, said Rezgui had never travelled abroad, and was not known by the police to hold extremist views.

A Facebook page believed to belong to him depicts him as a young man who liked rap music, Real Madrid and contained numerous postings in support of ISIL, The Telegraph UK reports.

His final entry is New Year 2015, and read: “May God take me out of this unjust world and perish its people and make them suffer. They just remember you when they die.”

In one post he wrote: “If jihad is a crime,” he wrote, “the world shall know that I’m a criminal.”

Earlier, it was revealed he laughed and joked as he fired his assault rifle, slaughtering innocent tourists while they sunbathed on the beach outside the two resorts.

Witnesses recalled the sound of the lone gunman’s laughter as he pulled out the weapon and targeted tourists, specifically the British, but also German, Belgian, Irish and French people.

“He was laughing and joking around, like a normal guy,’ said one witness.

“He was choosing who to shoot. Some people, he was saying to them ‘you go away’. He was choosing tourists, British, French.”

Video of the attack has also emerged, showing panicked witnesses running through the streets and along the beach as gunshots echo in the background

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Tunisian builders threw bags of cement and bricks at him from the top of buildings as he fired his weapon in nearby streets. After the attack, the lone wolf was later seen walking with his weapon by his side.

The Islamic State terror group released a picture of him on their social media accounts with a statement said: “Our brother, the soldier of the Caliphate, Abu Yahya al Qayrawani, reached his target the Imperial hotel despite the security measures.”

Most of those killed were “subjects of states that make up the crusader alliance fighting the state of the caliphate”, the group said in a statement released on Twitter, referring to the group of countries that have been bombarding its positions in the Middle East.

Loved ones missing as tourists flee

Britain said that at least 15 of its citizens were killed in Friday’s gun assault in the popular resort of Port el Kantaoui and that the number “may well rise”.

Olivia Leathley, from Manchester in northwest England, said she and her boyfriend Mike Jones heard grenades and gunfire and saw “hundreds of people running and screaming from the beach”.

“Somebody shouted, ‘they’re inside, run!’. We just ran as far away from the bullets as we could. It was all happening so quickly, it was deafening,” she told the BBC.

The couple found shelter in a small security lodge, and later discovered that the gunman was killed “about 400 yards” from where they were hiding.

Rebecca Smith, 22, from Coventry said she and her boyfriend Ross Thompson, 21, came face-to-face with the gunman who threw hand grenades, possibly homemade bombs at them.

“The corridor just exploded ... we got separated ... I didn’t know if he was dead or alive,” she told Sky News.

“I was in the staff toilets with another woman and her son, we just locked ourselves in and hoped for the best.

“It was just a bloodbath in the corridor.”

“I was peppered with grenade shrapnel. With one hit, I thought my jaw had come off,” Smith also told the Mail Online.

Please keep retweeting the images, thank you ❤ pic.twitter.com/A31oqgzyzM

— A$AP ROSSI (@rossinaylor) June 27, 2015

He was told her phone was handed in to police at the beach and that she was there during the attack. He has seen a picture of a woman on a stretcher he believes is his mum.

“The Foreign office said 20 flights have left today to return to Britain but they are not on the planes,” he told The Mirror. “I’m devastated, nobody is helping me, I’ve rang up hospitals, I’ve rang around hotels and I don’t even know what to do anymore.

“We’ve watched the news and my two sisters were sure they had seen her on a stretcher and it looked like she had been shot in the leg,” he said.

I believe this is my mom on @SkyNews can everybody please RT as we have no contact since ! Please Help #FindSueDavey pic.twitter.com/ZFvz90A1CE

— Conor Fulford (@ConorFulford) June 27, 2015

Planeloads of shocked foreign tourists flew home from Tunisia after the beachside massacre prompted a major security clampdown.

The North African nation, which relies heavily on tourism, announced plans to deploy troops at vulnerable sites and shut dozens of mosques accused of inciting extremism.

Tunisia’s health ministry said it had identified the bodies of 17 people from Britain, Germany, Ireland, Belgium and Portugal, as it tried to establish the identities of victims mown down in their beachwear.

British police have sent forensic experts and detectives to Tunisia to help identify victims and gather evidence.

Victims identified

Ireland has confirmed Lorna Carty died after she went to the beach by herself.

She had gone on holiday with her husband, who was recovering from heart surgery.

“Lorna rushed her husband to hospital about a fortnight ago after he was getting pains in his heart... He had to get stents in,” a family friend said. “They went out to Tunisia to have a bit of a holiday after the operation ... Apparently [her husband] Declan stayed back in the room and she went to the beach.”

There are also one German and one Belgian among the dead.

Thousands of scared foreign holiday-makers are being flown from Tunisia.

Carly Lovett, 24, was named as the first victim of the massacre.

The British beauty blogger had just finished university and was travelling with her fiance, Liam Moore, who is believed to have survived the attack.

Eyewitnesses told how Mr Moore cradled her in his arms after she had been shot.

Just two days before – as she prepared to go on holiday – Miss Lovett had excitedly tweeted: ‘Definitely leaving in like three hours and definitely am not finished packing.’

Mr Moore, who survived the attack, was due to fly back to the UK yesterday. The couple had got engaged three months ago.

Tony Callaghan, said he saw Mr Moore holding Miss Lovett in the lobby of the Imperial Hotel. She appeared to have been shot in the chest and stomach.

Mr Callaghan, from Norfolk, said: ‘I heard a sound of someone talking five yards down the corridor so I walked down there and there was a young guy holding a woman. She was on her back and had been shot in the chest and the stomach.

‘He looked up at me and said, “What can I do? It’s my fiancee and we are getting married.” ’ Mr Callaghan said he checked Miss Lovett’s pulse, and realised that she had died.

He said: ‘I just said to him, “sorry Liam I can’t find her pulse.” I didn’t know what else to say. She was just a young girl. They looked a lovely couple and very happy. It’s just heart-breaking.’

Others killed include Adrian Evans, a local authority worker, and his nephew, student Joel Richards.

More terror — attacks in France and Kuwait

The carnage at the popular Mediterranean resort of Port el Kantaoui on Friday came the same day as a suicide bomber killed 27 people at a Shi’ite mosque in Kuwait and a suspected Islamist attacked a factory in France.

In Kuwait, Health Minister Ali al-Obaidi told Kuwait Television the number of dead had risen to 27 in addition to 227 wounded in the first ever suicide attack on Shiite mosques in the oil-rich emirate.
The toll in the attack, carried out in the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, is one of the largest in Kuwait’s history.

The IS-affiliated group in Saudi Arabia, calling itself Najd Province, said militant Abu Suleiman al-Muwahhid carried out the attack on the mosque, which it claimed was spreading Shi’ite teachings among Sunni Muslims.

IS, a radical Sunni Muslim group, considers Shi’ites to be heretic.

Meanwhile, in France, a man was decapitated and at least two more injured at a gas product factory in France by a man carrying an Islamic State banner.

The attack took place at the headquarters of American company Air Products, in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, near Grenoble, in the southeast of France, just after 10am (6pm AEST).

Yassin Salhi, a 35-year-old truck driver, is suspected of decapitating his boss, before entering the factory grounds in a utility truck, then crashing the vehicle into a hangar at the site, prompting an explosion.

The head of his boss, who ran a delivery service, was found pinned to the gates at the factory, while his body was found inside the factory.

Australia responds

Speaking out against the attacks, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he was committed to tackling the threat of global terrorism, and was making “a strong contribution at home and working closely with our partners abroad”.

“Australia stands in solidarity with all those affected by these atrocities,” he said in a statement.

“These attacks are yet another reminder that the terrorist threat is real. They strengthen our resolve to combat the threat and the evil it represents.

He later told reporters that the attack “illustrates yet again that as far as the Daesh death cult is concerned, it’s coming after us”.

“We may not always feel that we are at war with them, but they certainly think that they are at war with us.”

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she would contact her counterparts in France, Tunisia and Kuwait to express Australia’s support, AAP reported.

Mr Abbott said Australians should remain vigilant.

“Our security agencies are assessing the situation for any implications for us but there is no information to suggest a higher threat to Australia as a result of these latest atrocities,” he said.

How it unfolded

Earlier, witnesses described scenes of panic after the shooting at the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel on the outskirts of Sousse, about 140km south of Tunis.

“He had a parasol in his hand,” aid Rafik Chelli, the secretary of state of the Interior Ministry.

“He went down to put it in the sand and then he took out his Kalashnikov and began shooting wildly.”

The gunman then entered the pool area of the Imperial Marhaba hotel before moving into the building, killing people as he went.

Tourists described hearing what sounded like fireworks and then running for their lives when they realised it was gunfire. Video of the aftermath showed medics using beach chairs as stretchers to carry away people in swimsuits.

Pictures posted on social media appeared to show the body of a man face down in the sand with empty sun loungers behind him. Elizabeth O’Brien, an Irish woman on holiday with her two sons in the resort, described how she grabbed her children and ran for their lives when they heard gunfire erupting from one of the hotels.

The gunman was finally shot dead by Tunisian security forces. There were earlier reports that another attacker fled the scene but later reports said there was only one gunman.

Tunisian Interior Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Aroui said: “A terrorist infiltrated the buildings from the back before opening fire on the residents of the hotel, including foreigners and Tunisians.”

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi called for a unified global strategy.

“We note that Tunisia faces an international movement. It cannot respond alone to this. On the same day at the same time France has been the target of such an operation, and Kuwait too,” Mr Essebsi said.

“This proves the need for a global strategy, and that all democratic countries must now join forces. This is worse than terrible.”

“I hope this is the last time, because we are determined to take the most painful measures to deal with an even more painful scourge,” he said.

Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, has seen a surge in radical Islam since veteran president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in the 2011 revolution.

He said guests at his hotel were first told to lock themselves in their rooms, and later to gather in the lobby.