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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Haroon Siddique in London and Raya Jalabi in New York

Terror attacks: separate attacks in Tunisia, France and Kuwait leave more than 60 dead – as it happened

Video from shortly after the terror attack on tourists in the resort town of Sousse.

Summary

Here are the latest updates on what we know on all three attacks.

We’ll be shutting down the live blog for now, but keep checking back for more coverage on The Guardian.

  • More than 60 people have been killed across three continents, during three separate attacks in Tunisia, France and Kuwait. These attacks are not believed to be coordinated
  • At least 38 people have been killed in a terrorist attack on a beachside hotel in Sousse, Tunisia and 36 wounded (eight in critical condition).The British Foreign Minister confirmed 5 Britons were among the dead, as was one Irish woman
  • Guests at the Imperial Marhaba hotel, barricaded themselves in hotel rooms throughout the day. British holidaymakers are being flown back to the UK on Friday night to Gatwick, Doncaster and Manchester airports.
  • Tunisia’s president said the attack was “worse than terrible” and has called for a unified international response to terrorist threats
  • The Tunisian interior ministry said a gunman was killed in an exchange of fire with security forces.There were conflicting reports over whether there was another gunman, and, if so, whether he was still at large
  • In Kuwait, at least 27 people were killed by an explosion at a Shia mosque in Kuwait city during Friday prayers. More than 227 people were injured.
  • In France, police have arrested four people – including the main suspect Yassin Salhi – after a decapitated body was found following an attack on a factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, south of Lyon. The suspect had reportedly tried to blow up the factory belonging to a US gas company
  • The three attacks come just days after after an Islamic State (Isis) spokesman urged jihadists to make the holy month of Ramadan “a time of calamity for the infidels … Shias and apostate Muslims”.
  • Isis has claimed the attack in Kuwait but no group has claimed the attacks in Tunisia or France

Tunisian president: 'This is worse than terrible'

Apparently, Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi spoke to journalists outside the Imperial Marhaba hotel earlier today, after visiting survivors and victims of the attack, all while wearing his sunglasses (video in Arabic here).

Beji Caid Essebsi in Sousse
Tunisian president visit victims of attack. Photograph: Facebook, Tunisian Presidency

Tunisia cannot stand up to the jihadist threat alone, Essebsi said, calling 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,” Essebsi later told AFP.

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

“This is worse than terrible,” he said of the attack which so far has killed 38 people, mostly foreign tourists.
“We thought we were protected from that. ... 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.”

Updated

More than eight hours after the attacks in Sousse, and there has still been no address to the nation from Tunisian officials ...

Tunisian television and journalists on social media are showing crowds in Sousse, chanting: “Free Tunisia” and “Terrorism Out”:

Crowds in Sousse, via Tunisia News Network (TNN)

Sousse 1
Crowds in Sousse, Tunisia Photograph: Tunisia News Network

The Tunisian tourism industry has issued a list of useful phone numbers for those looking for more information in Sousse:

And in English here:

Tunisia attack: 38 dead, 36 wounded

Chris Stephen has also just spoken with Tunisian health minister Said Aidi, who confirmed there were now 38 dead and 36 wounded, eight of whom are in critical condition.

He also reports that all the Britons in the RUI Imperial Marhaba hotel are being flown back tonight to Gatwick, Doncaster and Manchester airports.

Irish woman killed in Sousse named

The Irishwoman killed in the Tunisian terror attack was named on Friday night as Lorna Carty, a nurse and mother of two from County Meath.

She had been in the Tunisian resort with her husband Declan who had recently undergone heart surgery. It is understood the couple were given the holiday as a present from a family member to help with his recuperation.

Ray Butler, a parliamentarian with the main party in the ruling Irish coalition, Fine Gael, confirmed he had spoken to the husband of the murdered woman.

“This was the hardest phone call I’ve ever taken. My heart goes out to the family who are enduring unthinkable grief,” Butler said on Friday.

My colleague Chris Stephen has this latest dispatch from Sousse:

One couple from Kent told the Guardian they had been relaxing on their sunbeds when they heard what they believed at first to be fireworks, and saw a man running along the sand with what looked like a machine gun.

“He was shouting something, I don’t know what he was shouting,” said Glenn Whitehead, a scaffolder from Swanley, Kent. He shouted at his wife Anita to run, as bullets flew around them. A person lying next to them fell dead, he said.

The couple heard bullets close to their head, and Mrs Whitehead tripped in the sand as others ran screaming beside them. Staff from the hotel’s spa beckoned them inside, where about 20 other tourists and staff were waiting.

The couple said they waited for perhaps 20 minutes before they were led outside by staff, to find bodies lying by the hotel pool and in the foyer, amid pools of blood.

“I looked around the beach and all I could see were dead people covered in towels,” said Mr Whitehead. There was also a body on the sunbed next to the ones they had been using. “Where we were lying were a German mother and daughter. When I got back one of them was covered over, dead.”

“There was a lot of people who couldn’t get off their sunbeds,” his wife said. “They were elderly.”

Read the full report by Chris Stephen in Sousse, Julian Borger and Esther Addley.

Updated

US secretary of state John Kerry and Brett McGurk, the US envoy to the coalition to combat Isis have both commented on the trio of terror attacks:

McGurk even mentioned the Kurdis enclave of Kobani, Syria where Isis launched suicidal attacks, which was saved at great cost last year from an Isis onslaught. There were reports of 150 dead and more than 100 held hostage there on Friday.

Kuwait attack: at least 27 dead, 227 wounded

The Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) has reported a revised death toll from the Health Ministry for Friday’s deadly Imam al-Sadiq mosque blast:

At least 27 people were killed – up from 25 earlier in the day. There were 227 wounded, taken to area hospitals.

Kuwait has apparently declared Saturday (27 June) a national day of mourning for the victims of the mosque attack.

Several more people on social media are looking for their relatives, who are believed to have been at the scene of the terror attack in Sousse on Friday:

Updated

Summary

Here’s what we know so far on all three attacks:

  • More than 60 people have been killed across three continents, during three separate attacks in Tunisia, France and Kuwait. These attacks are not believed to be coordinated
  • At least 37 people have been killed in a terrorist attack on a beachside hotel in Sousse, Tunisia. The British Foreign Minister confirmed 5 Britons were among the dead, as was one Irish woman
  • Witnesses described terrifying scenes of people fleeing the beach with their children and screaming, before barricading themselves in hotel rooms. Reports on social media indicate that some of the hotels’ 565 guests are still inside the hotel
  • One of Tunisia’s top security officials said a gunman from the city of Kairouan, came from the beach hiding his Kalashnikov under a parasol before opening fire on the tourists. From there he entered the Hotel Imperial through the pool, shooting people as he went
  • The Tunisian interior ministry said a gunman was killed in an exchange of fire with security forces. There were conflicting reports over whether there was another gunman, and, if so, whether he was still at large
  • In Kuwait, at least 25 people were killed by an explosion at a Shia mosque in Kuwait city during Friday prayers. More than 200 people were injured.
  • In France, police have arrested four people – including the main suspect Yassin Salhi – after a decapitated body was found following an attack on a factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, south of Lyon. The suspect had reportedly tried to blow up the factory belonging to a US gas company
  • The three attacks come just days after after an Islamic State (Isis) spokesman urged jihadists to make the holy month of Ramadan “a time of calamity for the infidels … Shias and apostate Muslims”.
  • Isis has claimed the attack in Kuwait but no group has claimed the attacks in Tunisia or France

The slaughter of sunbathers and hotel staff on the beaches of a country that has always prided itself as a carefree, laid-back destination for package holiday-makers has dealt a huge blow to Tunisia.

... “I think the effect of this will be even more serious than the effect of the Bardo attack in March,” said Monica Marks, a North Africa analyst based in Tunis. “Not all tourists who come to Tunisia want to visit the Bardo museum: a lot more — particularly the German and British — are Vitamin D tourists who want to spend time on the beach.

“Sousse has the most package tourism of any other Tunisian resort on the coast,” she added. “Images of tourists dead across sunloungers will have a considerable effect. Tourism accounted for around 14.5% of Tunisian GDP last year. This will have considerable repercussions for the Tunisian economy. It also will also affect investor confidence.”

Marks said that the attack on this scale could spark a loss of confidence in the government and dent its authority.

Read the full report here

Meanwhile, John Yeoman who had earlier tweeted out details of the attack in Sousse as it unfolded, has now criticised Thompson Holidays for not doing enough to help him:

Twitter user Conor Fulford has tweeted out a plea for help finding his mum using #FindSueDavey:

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Security Council condemned the trio of attacks in Tunisia, Kuwait and France on Friday. Ban called for justice, and said the UN’s commitment to fight extremism had only been strengthened.

“Far from weakening the international community’s resolve to fight the scourge of terrorism, these heinous attacks will only strengthen the commitment of the United Nations to help defeat those bent on murder, destruction and the annihilation of human development and culture,” UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.

The Riu Imperial Marhaba has issued an update on their website:

First thing tomorrow we expect to have the exact death toll and the nationalities of the victims.

As per now we can confirm that there are 13 injured persons who were taken to area hospitals, including 9 guests and 4 hotel employees. We have been informed that their injuries are not life-trheatening and all are recovering.

The hotel group has said that it has organied psychological support services for all guests who might need assistance, in coordination with the Tunisian authorities.

The US and UK are ramping up internal security measures after a trio of deadly terror attacks in France, Tunisia and Kuwait.

Police in London are putting in place additional security measures for events this weekend, including Armed Forces Day and Pride London, said senior counter-terror officer Deputy Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball said.

Meanwhile, in the US, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says his department is encouraging law enforcement “to be vigilant and prepared” ahead of the July 4th holiday in the US. He says U.S. authorities will adjust security measures, including those unseen by the public, as necessary.

Johnson says people should attend Independence Day events as planned but “remain vigilant” and report any suspicious activity.

Tunisia attack: UK confirms 'at least five Britons dead'

Speaking after chairing a meeting of the Government’s Cobra committee and following talks with tour operators, a sombre Mr Hammond confirmed the British fatalities. He told reporters at the Foreign Office:

I would like to offer my condolences to the families and friends of the victims of these three shocking terrorist incidents in Tunisia, Kuwait and France.

Turning to the incident in Tunisia which is of most direct concern to people in this country because of the number of Britons involved, it is clear that there have been a number of people killed.

The situation on the ground is still somewhat confused and we can’t be sure exactly how many, but because of the nature of the composition of the tourist population in this part of Tunisia we have to assume that a high proportion of those killed and injured will have been British.

We have had reports from families of those involved in the incident that allow us to confirm that at least five Britons have been killed in this incident, but I should warn that we must expect that there will be more reports of fatalities as we establish the detail on the ground.”

Hammond said that there was a consular team in Sousse, with two rapid response teams travelling to the region overnight.

Meanwhile, travel companies in the UK have offered tourists the chance to change their holiday bookings to Tunisia:

Thomas Cook said customers due to travel between today and Sunday can cancel their holidays free of charge, while those flying out from Monday up to July 24 can amend bookings for holidays to Tunisia free of charge. People booked through Monarch or Cosmos Holidays in the next seven days can also choose not to travel and instead change their destination.

The deadly attack in Sousse is the second blow to the country’s tourism industry in four months. But the attacks have not deterred some Irish holiday-makers already in Tunisia or on their way to the north African country, writes my colleague Lisa O’Carroll:

Tanya Airey, managing director of Irish travel agent Sunway, told RTE radio it was going ahead with a charter flight operated by national airline Aer Lingus on Friday evening.

It had delayed the flight by three hours and had given the 170 customers waiting in Dublin Airport the option of cancelling.

She said: “59 people took up the offer, 112 people are travelling out and have decided to carry on with their holiday.”

“It’s horrific for the country and safety for our customers is paramount - we go by the advice by the department of Foreign Affairs”.

The US State Department said on Friday there was no evidence so far the terrorist attacks in France, Tunisia and Kuwait were coordinated.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has said that at least five British tourists were killed in the gun attack on the Tunisian beach resort, Press Association is reporting.

Mr Hammond warned that the death toll could rise and said a “high proportion” of the casualties were expected to be British “because of the nature of the resort”.

My colleague Chris Stephen has tweeted the following updates from Sousse:

Follow him on Twitter @reportingLibya

Ireland’s Foreign Minister has warned there may be more Irish tourists killed in the Tunisian beach terror massacre, reports my colleague in Dublin, Henry McDonald:

Minister Charlie Flanagan said tonight: “There were a number of Irish people in the hotel, in the vicinity, every effort is being made to make contact with them.

“I can’t exclude the possibility that there are other Irish fatalities in this indiscriminate act.”

Flanagan said the Irish Ambassador to Tunisia is on his way to the Sousse area to help out Irish tourists there.

One woman in her 50s from County Meath was killed in the attack on the beach. On other Irish tourists on their way to Tunisia tonight and over the weekend, the minister said his advice was “to exercise the most extreme caution, the situation is very volatile.”

Deck chairs with towels lie abandoned at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel after Friday’s attacks
Deck chairs with towels lie abandoned at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel after Friday’s attack. Photograph: Mohamed Messara/EPA

Updated

The armed attack on the beach in Sousse seems to be the deadliest attack on tourists in the Arab world since the 1997 massacre in Luxor Egypt.

In 1997, Islamist militants went on a killing spree along Luxor’s Valley of the Kings, killing more than 60, the vast majority of them foreign tourists. The attack on the temple of Hatshepsut was the bloodiest attack of its kind Egypt had ever seen.

Last march, 22 people – including foreign tourists – were killed when two gunmen attacked the Bardo museum in Tunis.

Updated

The French prosecutor said that the Shahada, or Muslim testament of faith, was visible on at least one of the flags.

Here’s a good backgrounder on the significance of the Shahada and how jihadis use it, written by my colleague Michael Safi after the Sydney siege in 2014.

France attack: four arrested including suspect

The French prosecutor has given a press conference, providing details of the incident:

  • Four suspected accomplices are being held in the attack on the factory in France. They have been arrested and are in interrogation.
  • The suspect, his wife and sister are part of those arrested
  • The victim was the suspect’s employer
  • Part of the factory hangar was blown apart
  • 43 people were in the factory at the time of the attack. 13 employees are still in a state of shock
  • There were no more injuries so far
  • The body of the victim was found near the suspect’s vehicle, where a knife was also found
  • The severed head of the victim, was found hooked onto a railing with two flags with arabic inscription

More details provided on the victim:

  • The victim was a 54-year-old man
  • He was the manager of a transport company, from the Lyon area and had been a salaried employee of the company since March 2015

More details on the suspect:

  • Yassin Salhi was named as the main suspect
  • He was born on 25 March 1980
  • He had been working at that same company as the victim
  • He’s the father of three children and has been married for about 10 years
  • He had not been found guilty of any previous crimes
  • He has been under surveillance for “radical islamic activities” since 2006.
  • Between 2011 and 2014, French security services had been investigating him for connections to salafist groups in the Lyon area

The inquiry has been given to the central direction of the judicial police and to the anti-terrorist unit, and the internal security services, the French prosecutor said

• This post was updated on Friday, 26 June, 2015 to clarify a reference to the victim’s position at his transport company.

Updated

Tunisia attack: 37 dead, 36 wounded – health ministry

Tunisia’s health ministry has confirmed to the Guardian the revised number of dead and wounded

The British Foreign Office said it was “urgently” working with travel firms in Tunisia, and had despatched a British Embassy team to the site of the atrocity.

A spokesman said: “We are urgently working with tour operators and local authorities in Tunisia to gather and confirm information on those affected by this attack.

“A team from the British Embassy in Tunis is on its way to the area to support any British nationals needing assistance.”

The Tunisian foreign ministry could not yet confirm the nationalities of the 28 dead as some are still to be identified, reports my colleague Julian Borger.

But an official said that among the wounded tourists, there are 11 Britons, 3 Belgians and a German.

Ireland confirms citizen's death

The Irish department of foreign affairs and trade has confirmed the death of an Irish citizen in Sousse, my colleague Lisa O’Carroll reports:

I condemn unreservedly the terrorist attacks in Tunisia, Kuwait and France today,” said the minister of foreign affairs Charlie Flanagan. “Sadly, I can confirm that an Irish citizen has been killed in the attack in Sousse, Tunisia.

Our focus is on establishing whether any other citizens have been killed or injured. I would like to offer my heartfelt condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased. My Department is providing consular assistance to those affected.”

It said it was changing its travel advice to ‘exercise extreme caution’ in light of the incident.

Updated

The German foreign office said it does not yet know whether any of the victims from the attack were German citizens.

My colleague, Ireland correspondent Henry McDonald, has more on the Irish woman reportedly killed in today’s attacks. A member of the ruling Fine Gael party in Dublin has spoken to her family, he reports:

The victim is in her 50s and comes from the County Meath area and her family are understood to be prominent in the Gaelic Athletic Association in the Irish county.

Fine Gael TD Ray Butler said he has spoken to the woman’s husband. “He is absolutely distraught,” Butler said. The woman’s husband was not on the beach when the attacker struck killing his wife.

This does not seem to be the first terror attack in Sousse.

In 2013, in what was believed to be the first suicide bombing targeting mass civilian casualties in Tunisia, a suicide bomber blew himself in front of the seaside Riadh Palm hotel in Sousse.

The suicide bomber was a Tunisian man and was wearing an explosive belt. He was the only fatality.

In the same statement, the hotel described itself as a 5 star property, with 366 rooms. RIU owns 10 hotels in Tunisia with a total of 3,586 rooms.

Most guests at Imperial Marhaba Hotel 'from UK and central Europe' – hotel

The Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel where today’s attack took place has said that the majority of the 565 guests at the hotel are from the UK and other central European countries:

While the Tunisian authorities keep working in the area and guests are being taken care of, the information about the attack at the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel is still limited.

When the attack occurred, the occupancy rate at the hotel was 77% with 565 guests at the moment of the attack.

The majority of the guests are from the UK and other central European countries. However, it is not possible at the moment to confirm the nationalities or any other details of the victims.

Updated

Summary

  • At least 28 people have been killed including British, German and Belgian nationals in a terrorist attack on a beachside hotel in Sousse, Tunisia. Irish media have reported that an Irish woman in her 50s was also among the victims.
  • Witnesses described terrifying scenes of people fleeing the beach with their children and screaming, before barricading themselves in hotel rooms. Photos posted on Instagram, purportedly of the scene of the attack, showed a man in swimming shorts face down in a pool of blood on the beach amid abandoned sun loungers.
  • One of the country’s top security officials said a gunman from the city of Kairouan, came from the beach hiding his Kalashnikov under a parasol before opening fire on the tourists. From there he entered the Hotel Imperial through the pool, shooting people as he went.
  • The interior ministry said a gunman was killed in an exchange of fire with security forces. There were conflicting reports over whether there was another gunman, and, if so, whether he was still at large.
  • In Kuwait, at least 25 people were killed by an explosion at a Shia mosque in Kuwait city during Friday prayers. More than 200 people were injured.
  • In France, police launched a terrorism investigation after a decapitated body and a flag with Islamist inscriptions were found following an attack in which a man seemingly tried to blow up a factory belonging to a US gas company.
  • The three attacks come just days after after an Islamic State (Isis) spokesman urged jihadists to make the holy month of Ramadan “a time of calamity for the infidels … Shias and apostate Muslims”. Isis has claimed the attack in Kuwait but there is no evidence linking the atrocities at present.

Here is video of UK prime minister David Cameron responding to the attacks in Tunisia and France:

Cameron criticises ‘twisted and perverted ideology’ of attackers

British, German and Belgian citizens among dead

British, German and Belgian nationals are among the dead in Tunisia, the health ministry has said (via Reuters).

Updated

The Irish Times is reporting that an unnamed Irish woman in her 50s, who was on holiday with her husband, is among the dead in Tunisia. No nationalities of other victims have been revealed so far.

Tunisian death toll rises – state TV

Tunisian state television has raised the death toll from the beach attack in Sousse to 28 dead and 36 wounded, AP reports.

Updated

A flight from Brussels to Enfidha, around 50km from Sousse, turned round in mid-air due to the terrorist attack:

Here is a picture of a suspect being led away in connection with the Tunisia attack:

Police officers control the crowd (rear) while surrounding a man (front C) suspected to be involved in the attack on a beachside hotel in Sousse, Tunisia, as a woman reacts (R). Amine Ben Aziza.
Police officers control the crowd (rear) while surrounding a man (front C) suspected to be involved in the attack on a beachside hotel in Sousse, Tunisia, as a woman reacts (R). Amine Ben Aziza. Photograph: Amine Ben Aziza/Reuters

French officials have said the decapitated victim in the factory attack in France was the suspect’s employer.

Updated

Rafik Chelli, one of Tunisia’s top security officials, told Mosaique FM that the gunman shot by security forces after attacking a Tunisian beach resort was unknown to authorities. From AP:

Chelli said the man, from the city of Kairouan, came from the beach hiding his Kalashnikov under an umbrella before opening fire on the tourists. From there he entered the Hotel Imperial through the pool, shooting people as he went.

Chelli said there were many foreigners among the victims but he did not have an exact count of the nationalities.

He said authorities had a plan to protect the hotels during the month of Ramadan but this was an isolated operation that is difficult to counter against and there is never zero risk.

My colleague Tom McCarthy, in New York, said that a US justice department spokesman, when asked whether an investigation is underway of potential links between the incidents in Tunisia, France and Kuwait, merely said: “I cannot confirm anything at this time and have no comment.”

Death toll in Kuwait attack rises to 25

The death toll from the attack on a Shia mosque in Kuwait, has risen to 25, with 202 injured, the country’s interior ministry said. The attack, unlike those in Tunisia and Paris, has been claimed by Isis.

Updated

Here is another witness account, from Steve Johnson, who was staying at the Imperial Marhaba hotel.

He said:

We were just laying on the beach as usual... and we heard what at first we thought was fireworks but it was soon pretty obvious that that it was not fireworks, it was firearms being discharged, and people screaming and starting to run from along the beach towards us.

Me and my friend said: ‘That’s guns, let’s go’ and we shouted to everybody around us who joined the sort of mass rush from the beach. People running in all directions around us.


Once at the hotel, he said:

We tried to organise people to get themselves concealed away from windows and got the staff to lock up the doors, and we stayed there until we started to see armed police officers on the site and waited until we were told it was safe to come out.

The place has been completely locked down now by the military and a lot of armed police officers. The majority of people have gone to their rooms.”

He said the authorities were now “removing a number of bodies from around the pool area”.

Hotel attack in Tunisia
Grab from FM Jawhara video from Sousse, Tunisia Photograph: FM Jawhara

At least 16 people have been killed and dozens wounded in an attack on a Shia mosque in Kuwait today. There is nothing to connect it to the attacks in Tunisia and France. The atrocity in Kuwait is the only one to have been claimed by Islamic State. From AP:

A posting on a Twitter account known to belong to Isis said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt. The attack was claimed by an Isis affiliate calling itself the Najd Province, the same group that claimed a pair of bombing attacks on Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia in recent weeks.

Friday’s explosion struck the Imam Sadiq mosque in the neighbourhood of al-Sawabir, a residential and shopping district of Kuwait City... Police formed a cordon around the mosque’s complex immediately after the explosion, banning people from entering or gathering near the area. Ambulances could be seen ferrying the wounded from the site...

Ahmad al-Shawaf, said worshippers were standing shoulder to shoulder in group prayer when the explosion struck near the door of the mosque. Al-Shawaf said the explosion took place near the end of a second prayer that is traditional to Shia muslims and which follows the main midday Friday prayer.

He reported that witnesses standing behind him said they saw a man walk in, stand in the back with other congregants and detonate his device ...

Isis regards Shia Muslims as heretics, and refers to them derogatively as “rafideen” or “rejectionists”. The Isis Twitter statement said the bomber had targeted a “temple of the apostates”.

An injured man is helped following a blast at Imam Sadiq Mosque in al-Sawaber, Kuwait City.
An injured man is helped following a blast at Imam Sadiq Mosque in al-Sawaber, Kuwait City. Photograph: RAED QUTENA/EPA

Updated

A UK foreign office spokesman said:

We are aware of the ongoing situation at a hotel resort in Sousse, Tunisia. We are urgently looking to establish further details and whether any British citizens are involved.

In its travel advice it advises against travel to certain areas, including the borders with Algeria and Libya but adds: “424,707 British nationals visited Tunisia in 2014. Most British tourists stay in the coastal resorts and most visits are trouble free.”

Here are a couple of maps created by my colleague Paddy Allen showing the location of the hotel in Tunisia where the attack took place as well as an overhead view of the resort.

Tunisia map
Tunisia map 2

The three attacks today, in Tunisia, Kuwait and France come just days after Islamic State (Isis) spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani used an audio message to urge jihadis to turn the holy month of Ramadan into “a time of “calamity for the infidels … Shias and apostate Muslims”.

So far there is no evidence that the atrocities were coordinated. Isis has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack in Kuwait, although high profile incidents are often claimed by multiple groups after the event in a bid to boost their notoriety.

Updated

Police are still clearing the area around the Imperial Marhaba hotel. The body of one suspect lay at the scene with a Kalashnikov assault rifle by his side. He was shot in an exchange of gunfire, a security source at the scene told Reuters.

A hotel worker at the site said:

One attacker opened fire with a Kalashnikov on tourists and Tunisians on the beach of the hotel. It was just one attacker. He was a young guy dressed in shorts like he was a tourist himself.

Updated

Graphic photos have been posted on Instagram that purport to show the beach outside the hotel. The beach is deserted, full of empty sun loungers, bar from a man in swimming shorts lying face down in a pool of blood.

Updated

Britain’s Metropolitan police said it was “monitoring the situation” after the attacks in Tunisia and France. It said it constantly reviews security and urged the public to remain vigilant and report anything suspicious. It said the threat level to the UK from international terrorism remained “severe”, which means an attack is highly likely.

Updated

David Cameron said the British government’s Cobra emergency committee would meeting in London this afternoon to discuss the implications of the terror atrocities.

At a news conference in Brussels at the end of an EU summit, the British prime minister condemned the “appalling” attacks and offered “sympathy, condolences and solidarity”.

He went on: “This is a threat that faces all of us. These events have taken place in Tunisia and in France but they can take place anywhere. We all face this threat.”

A minister would be chairing the Cobra meeting, he said, to ensure “we are doing everything we can to cooperate and coordinate with other countries” and to share information with them.

He said the government was already engaged in the fight against terrorism, but that it was also important to challenge the causes of radicalisation.

We also have to deal - perhaps more important than anything - with this poisonous, radical narrative that is turning so many young minds. And we have to combat it with everything that we have.

The people who do these things, they sometimes claim that they do it in the name of Islam. They don’t. Islam is a religion of peace. They do it in the name of a twisted and perverted ideology that we have to confront with everything that we have. And we must stop the poisoning of these young minds in our country, in other European countries, and around the world.

Updated

John Yeoman on Twitter described the terror as it unfolded:

According to some estimates there are more Tunisians fighting for Islamic State (Isis) than combatants from any other single country, even though it is one of the most secular countries in the Arab world.

The attackers behind March’s attack on the National Bardo Museum, which also targeted tourists, were believed to have returned from fighting in neighbouring Libya.

In February, Tunisia arrested 32 would-be attackers, some of whom were returning from fighting in Syria. Officials accused them of planning “spectacular” attacks.

Updated

Here is audio of an interview with Susan Ricketts and her sister, who told Sky News they were on the beach when they heard gunfire. Ricketts said:

Everybody just started running in and screaming. The whole place just cleared.

Interior ministry: most of the dead are tourists

The interior ministry says most of the dead are tourists, according to AP. The attack has echoes of that on the National Bardo museum in Tunis, in March, which saw 22 people killed, mostly foreign tourists.

Updated

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.

Elizabeth O’Brien, from Dublin, told RTE raido:

We were on the beach, my sons were in the sea and I just got out of the sea. It was about 12 o’clock and I just looked up about 500 metres from me and I saw a (hot air) balloon collapse down, then rapid firing, then I saw two of the people who were going to go up in the balloon start to run towards me - because I thought it was fireworks,.

So, I thought ‘oh my God, it sounds like gunfire’, so I just ran to the sea to my children and grabbed our things and as I was running towards the hotel, the waiters and the security on the beach started saying ‘run, run run!’ and we just ran to our room, which is like a little bungalow. So we are actually trapped in our room.

O’Brien said the Irish consul in Madrid, Spain, called her to say it was a terrorist attack in the hotel next door and told her to stay where she was. She said:

My travel agent told me to go to the reception to speak to the rep, but I’m afraid. I’m stuck in the room with my two sons, not knowing what’s going on.

A British tourist close to the scene of the attack has described his experiences to Sky News.

Gary Pine said he was on the beach and heard what “we thought was firecrackers going off” 100 yards away, followed by an explosion from the next hotel complex along.

“There was a mass exodus off the beach,” he said. He said his son had seen someone get shot on the beach.

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

Opening summary

At least 27 people have been killed in an attack on a hotel in the Tunisian beach resort of Sousse, according to an interior ministry official.

The attack was on the Imperial Marhaba hotel, a source and local radio said.

A security source at the scene said the body of one gunman armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle lay where police had shot him dead. It was unclear whether there were other assailants.

Sousse, some 150 kilometres from Tunis, is a popular resort for both Tunisians and Europeans.

Tunisia

Updated

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