Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Rezgui
New footage shows hotel workers pursuing Tunisia beach attacker
A nationwide search for other suspects has been launched.
Updated 8.58am
Some readers may find the above footage disturbing.
NEW VIDEO HAS emerged of hotel workers pursuing the student who massacred holidaymakers on a Tunisian beach and at a resort hotel.
The footage, obtained by Sky News, shows the men following Seifeddine Rezgui as he walks through the hotel and on to the beach.
The cameraman at one stage appears to contemplate attacking Rezgui with a bottle, before the gunman turns on him.
The group follows him through the grounds of the hotel, to the street where he was shot by police.
It has been confirmed that three Irish tourists died in the attack.
Most people from Ireland who have already booked holidays to the country are continuing to travel out, the managing director of Sunway Holidays said.
Tanya Airey told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that two-thirds due to fly out on Friday did so. Others were given the opportunity to travel home early, but only a handful chose to do so.
She noted that the Department of Foreign Affairs is advising tourists to “exercise extreme caution”, but hasn’t warned people not to travel to the country.
Airey added that refunds will not be offered as this warning has not been issued.
An Interior Ministry official said it is believed the man acted alone during the attack - but had accomplices who supported him beforehand.
Police are searching nationwide for more suspects after the slaughter of at least 38 people in Sousse on Friday, in Tunisia’s deadliest ever such attack.
The attacker’s father and three roommates were detained and being questioned in the capital, Tunis, Interior Ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui told The Associated Press.
A security official close to the investigation said the student frequented an “unofficial” mosque in the Tunisian holy city of Kairouan for the past two years.
The official said a swimmer had found the attacker’s cellphone in the Mediterranean. The phone showed the attacker spoke with his father just before his assault, the official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to speak publicly.
The attacker has been identified as a 24-year-old graduate of Tunisia’s Kairouan University where he had been living with the other students. The attack was claimed by the radical Islamic State group.
“We are sure that others helped, but did not participate,” Aroui said. “They participated indirectly.”
Investigators believe the suspected accomplices provided the Kalashnikov assault rifle to Rezgui and helped him get to the scene, Aroui said.
The tourism ministry confirmed plans to deploy 1,000 armed officers from 1 July to reinforce the tourism police, who will now also carry guns for the first time.
Armed officers will be deployed “inside and outside hotels”, on beaches and at tourist and archaeological sites, the ministry said.
Authorities have also announced plans to close 80 mosques accused of inciting extremism.
Additional by reporting by The Associated Press and © – AFP, 2015
have your say