The bodies of eight Britons killed by a gunman in Friday’s beach attack in Tunisia have been flown back to the UK.
In a sombre ceremony, the bodies – the first from the attack to be repatriated to the UK – were unloaded from the C-17 military transport aircraft at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, in front of family members.
The repatriations, which are expected to take several days, began on the day that the Tunisian health ministry said that it had completed formal identification of all 38 victims of the attack.
It said they included 30 Britons, three Irish citizens, two Germans, and one person each from Belgium, Portugal and Russia. Earlier on Wednesday, in the House of Commons, David Cameron said that the number of confirmed British dead had reached 27, although he once more warned that the number was expected to rise and Number 10 has previously indicated that it expects the final death toll to reach 30.
The latest to be named were husband and wife David and Sharon Bell, from Leeds, whose family released a statement through West Yorkshire police saying that they were “deeply saddened” by their loss. They said that they were still trying to establish the exact circumstances of their deaths.
The family of John Welch, 74, from Corsham in Wiltshire, have had confirmation that he died in the terror attack, Wiltshire police said on Wednesday.
Welch was in Tunisia with his partner of eight years, Eileen Swannack, aged 73, and the couple were regular visitors to the beach resort of Sousse.
Those being returned were Adrian Evans, Charles Evans (known as Patrick), Joel Richards, Carly Lovett, Stephen Mellor, John Stollery, and Denis and Elaine Thwaites.
The plane landed at the airbase, more usually associated with the repatriation of members of the armed forces, at around 3pm. As it touched down relatives of those on board wept and comforted each other.
A statement coinciding with the repatriations was issued on behalf of Suzanne Richards, whose family lost members from three generations, described Patrick Evans, 78, Adrian Evans, 49 and Joel Richards, 22, as “pure diamonds”. She said the trio had been on holiday for less than 24 hours when they were killed.
“We are a very small and normal family, but nothing will ever be normal again,” she said.
“My son, Joel, dad Pat and brother Adrian were our rocks and we are all heartbroken and devastated and will never get over losing them.”
She said the trip was to celebrate Richards finishing his 2nd year at university with good grades and his 16-year-old brother Owen, who survived the attack, finishing his GCSEs. She urged people to “fight this evil together and smile for Joel, Ade and Pat”.
The bodies were taken on hearses from Brize Norton to the West London’s coroner office. The chief coroner, Judge Peter Thornton QC, said that the families would be “at the heart of this investigation process”.
He said: “The coroner will order full postmortem examinations with CT scans in order to establish the precise medical cause of death.
“Thereafter he will release the bodies to the families for burial or cremation as soon as is reasonably practicable. No doubt he will work towards as early a release as possible in each case.”
He said that there would be one investigation and one inquest for each deceased although they were likely to be held together and presided over by a senior judge, in view of the circumstances of the killings.
The wounded have already been brought back to the UK, with four severely injured holidaymakers being treated at hospitals in Birmingham, Oxford, Plymouth and London.
Tunisian authorities have arrested several people on suspicion of helping killer Seifeddine Rezgui and are seeking at least two other suspects.
But reports that emerged after the attack suggesting there may have been more than one gunman appeared to be dispelled on Wednesday after Tunisian interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Laroui said preliminary investigations indicated that all bullets recovered from the dead and injured had come from the same weapon.
Cameron, said: “There is still a lot of work to be done to identify all of the circumstances of this appalling attack and the support this gunman received.
“As we get that information, as we can confirm that information, I will make sure the house is regularly updated.
“In term of discussions between the home secretary and the Tunisians, I can confirm they went ahead and were successful. This is looking, as I said previously, at everything from the protective security in hotels and resorts, all the way through to intelligence cooperation at the highest level between Britain and Tunisia so we can help with their capacity to combat appalling events like this.”
The prime minister said that he was looking at creating a ministerial committee to coordinate work across the government “to provide all the support that the victims of this appalling attack deserve and also to make sure that, as a nation, we mark and commemorate this event appropriately”. A national one-minute silence has already been announced for midday on Friday.
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