A dual Australian-Colombian citizen who lived in New South Wales was among those killed in the attack on the Bardo museum in Tunisia, authorities have confirmed.
He was identified on Thursday as a recent university graduate and business analyst, Javier Camelo, 28.
Camelo was killed with his mother, and almost 20 others, when gunmen stormed the National Bardo museum in the Tunisian capital of Tunis.
Camelo, who reportedly lived in Waterloo in inner Sydney, graduated from Spain’s IE business school this year with an MBA and formerly studied at the University of Sydney.
According to social media he had worked for American Express in Sydney.
A friend of Camelo posted a moving letter on Facebook.
“Dear Javi, I always imagined I would see your name on the news due to your great achievements in life,” Rasia Sanderson wrote.
“But never as one of the victims of those terrorist attacks that always feel so far away through TV and computer screens.”
Colombian media reported that Camelo, the son of a retired army general, graduated only last week, then travelled with his parents and brother to Africa.
The family were in a group of tourists on board a cruise in the Mediterranean.
Camelo’s father and brother were unharmed, the report said.
The prime minister, Tony Abbott, said at least 19 people, including 17 foreign tourists, had died in the attack.
“Our consular officials have now confirmed that a dual Australian-Colombian citizen, who was a resident of New South Wales, was among the deceased,” Abbott said in a joint statement with the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, on Thursday.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the man’s family, to whom we will extend all consular assistance.”
Abbott and Bishop condemned the incident as “a terrorist attack on a fledgling democracy” and said it underlined “the terrorist threat to Australians at home and abroad”.
Bishop told parliament on Thursday that the Australian man was killed alongside his mother, a Colombian national.
“Our thoughts are with their family and we are offering consular assistance,” she said.
Labor has issued a statement condemning the attack.
“Our thoughts are with the people of Tunisia, and the families and friends of those who have lost their lives,” the joint statement by opposition leader Bill Shorten and shadow foreign minister Tanya Plibersek said.
“This kind of terror has no place in our world and it emphasises the need for close international cooperation to defeat this menace.”
Australians planning to go to Tunisia should “exercise a high degree of caution because of the unpredictable security situation”.
Authorities sought confirmation of the death after the Tunisian prime minister, Habib Essid, listed Australia as one of the countries that had lost citizens.
Essid told Tunisian television the death toll from the attack on the Bardo museum in Tunis stood at 21, including 17 tourists - he identified them as five Japanese, four Italians, two Colombians, two Spaniards and one each from Australia, France and Poland. The nationality of one non-Tunisian victim had not been established, he said.
At least one Tunisian, a security officer, was listed among the dead in earlier reports. Two of the gunmen are also believed to have died in the hours-long siege that followed the brazen daytime attack. The identity of the 21st victim was unclear.
Essid said that the Tunisian government was “conducting a toll counting the number of wounded and dead”.
Tunisia was the flashpoint of the so-called Arab Spring. Months of protests culminated in the ousting of long-term president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011.
The country has since rebuilt itself, prompting the former Australian ambassador to Tunisia to label it the “single success story” of the Arab Spring uprising.
“They had a serious effort to bring together the contending Islamist and secular voices over the last two years,” Robert Bowker told journalists on Thursday. “For that reason I think that these attacks are unlikely to destabilise the country politically. Whereas a year ago, it might have been a very different story.”
The two-time ambassador turned academic said Isis fighters had easy passage through the porous border between Tunisia and Libya.
“They are hitting the Tunisians where it hurts most, which is the tourism sector,” Bowker said. “There’s also a message for the Europeans that ‘we’re coming’.
“It’s an attempt to show the Europeans that they are a force to be reckoned with.
“I’m sure that the Tunisians will reinforce their security arrangements in places like the museum and other tourist sites,” Bowker said. He said few Australians ventured to Tunisia as a tourist destination.
The Tunisian government estimates that there are about 2,000 nationals fighting with extremist groups in the Syria-Iraq conflict.
