Horror on the beach: At least 15 Britons confirmed dead in Tunisian massacre as it emerges that ISIS gunman LAUGHED as he picked off his victims

- At least one gunman carried out a terrorist attack at holiday destination of Sousse on Friday afternoon
- One assailants was shot dead, named as Seifeddine Rezgui - a student who has never left the country
- ISIS have claimed responsibility, releasing a picture of a man they say is Abu Yahya Qayrawani
- 15 Britons confirmed dead, but Tunisian PM warns there will be more as Brits make up 'the majority'

This is the face of the man who laughed as slaughtered holidaymakers while they sunbathed on a Tunisian beach, killing 38 - the majority of them said to be British.

Islamic extremists ISIS have said they were behind the attack in the resort, naming the gunman who targeted Western tourists as Abu Yahya Qayrawani - thought to be the jihadi name of the killer shot dead by authorities after Friday's attack.

The Tunisian Prime Minister said the 'majority' of the fatalities were British, as the number of Britons confirmed dead rose to eight.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said the country needs to prepare itself for the fact that 'many of those killed' in the 'savage' Tunisian shooting were British, as the first victim was named as Carly Lovett, 24.

The British death toll has now risen to 15, but it 'may well rise', Foreign Minister Tobias Ellwood said.








Relief: Criss Callaghan, 62, who was injured in the massacre, is hugged by her husband Tony, who works at North Walsham PEO in Norfolk as a property officer for the police, as she recovers in hospital in Tunisia

Miss Lovett is a 24-year-old university graduate who is understood to be on the third day of her holiday with family and friends, including her fiance Liam Moore.

The photographer and blogger, who got engaged in December, excitedly tweeted on Wednesday: 'Definitely leaving in like three hours and definitely am not finished packing.’

Police in Lincolnshire say Mr Moore survived the attack.

There are also reports of a Sandwell Council employee from Tipton, in the West Midlands, and two members of his family being among the dead, while it is thought there are three Germans and one Belgian fatality.

Lorna Carty, a nurse from Ireland, is the only person who has been officially confirmed as dead as it stands. She was on holiday with her husband, who is recovering from heart surgery.

The tour companies are currently evacuating thousands of tourists, while Thompson and First Choice have both cancelled all flights to Tunisia which had been booked for this week.

Speaking yesterday, Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid said: 'The majority are British. After come the Germans, then the Belgians and then other nationalities.'

This morning, defence secretary Michael Fallon reiterated his fears - and said he also expected the number to rise.

He told Sky News: 'Sadly, we believe the majority are British of those who have been killed or injured.

'There are some victims who still have to be identified but the number, I'm sad to say, is going to increase.'

The number of dead does not include the gunman, named as Seifeddine Rezgui bu Tunisian authorities.

Essid said Rezgui was not previously known by authorities, and came from the town of Gaafour in the governorate of Siliana and had been a student at Kairouan university.

He had never travelled abroad.

It has also emerged divers have recovered the gunman’s mobile phone.

Authorities had been searching for the device after being told by a witness the 23-year-old had thrown it into the sea before starting to shoot his victims with a Kalashnikov.

Investigators will now examine the mobile for clues to possible accomplices.

It was not immediately clear what state the phone was in and whether any information could be recovered from it.













Eyewitnesses say the gunman was was seen laughing and joking among the midday bathers and sunseekers, looking like any other tourist.

But it was claimed he was carefully selecting the victims he would murder with a Kalashnikov hidden in his parasol.

The British were his prime targets on the crowded Tunisian beachfront at El Kantaoui near Sousse.

But Germans, Belgians and Tunisians were also among his 38 victims – with 36 seriously wounded.

'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.'

Tom Richards, a university graduate who was on holiday with his mother and younger brother, found himself face-to-face with a man with 'long black hair and a beard', between 20 to 25.

He and his mother Sam had fled from the pool when they heard the shots ring out, but were confronted with the Kalashnikov-wielding terrorist inside the hotel, where they were sheltering with other guests.

The gunman shot two people in the head, before turning his attention to Mr Richards.

The 22-year-old told The Guardian: 'He looked right at me, I thought I was dead.'

But instead of shooting Mr Richards, he shot the floor - allowing Mr Richards and his mother, who were injured by shards of marble, to escape to a nearby toilet.

'I don’t know why he stopped. He could have killed everybody,' he said.

Many tourists barricaded themselves in their rooms after the 23-year-old student opened fire.

In another chilling account, Ibrahim el-Ghoul revealed how the killer had been smiling.

The trainee mechanic, who works part-time at hotel nearby, said the gunman told him 'I don't want to kill you; I want to hit tourists,' according to The Independent.

Olivia Leathley, 24, a chef from Chorlton, Manchester, said she and her boyfriend escaped the massacre at the Imperial Marhaba hotel only because she was charging her phone.

'We then heard a shot from inside the hotel. Somebody just shouted 'run' so we sprinted off in all directions,' she said. 'The machine gun fire was so close, it sounded like it was right behind us.

'I was then on the phone to my dad, screaming at the top of my lungs and telling him 'I love you, I love you'.

'My dad Glenn was saying 'I love you' and shouting prayers down the phone, begging 'Lord, protect them'. We eventually found an office building and hid in a room. As soon as I got somewhere safe, I threw up.

'I later came across a woman who said her husband had been shot in the stomach on the beach. He was bleeding heavily, but she had to leave him there.'

A hotel worker said a shoeless Rezgui, who arrived on the beach by inflatable boat, had tried to blend in with the crowd. He added: 'He opened fire with a Kalashnikov. He was a young guy dressed in shorts – like he was a tourist himself.'

Rafik Chelli, Tunisia's secretary of state for national security, said the gunman – named locally as Rezgui – entered the Marhaba complex through the pool area.

'He entered by the beach, dressed like someone who was going to swim, and he had a beach umbrella with his gun in it. Then when he came to the beach he used his weapon,' Mr Chelli said. Rezgui was shot dead by the security forces.

Because of the Ramadan religious period, there were few Tunisians on the beach and few children because most schools have yet to break up.

Houcine Jenayah, a businessman, said the gunman arrived at speed on an inflatable Zodiac boat.

'He opened fire and had grenades with him,' said Mr Jenayah. 'He hid his Kalashnikov behind a parasol that he had in his hand.'

Within minutes of the massacre, photographs had been posted on an Instagram account showing a middle-aged man wearing blue shorts lying face down in the sand with a pool of blood around his head.

Other bodies were covered with towels and marked with numbers.

Father-of-three John Yeoman, 46, of Kettering, Northamptonshire, used a bed to barricade himself and his family in the room of his hotel. 'We were in the pool when we heard automatic gunfire. People ran past saying there was an armed man on the beach,' he said.

Tweeting a picture of his barricaded room, he added: 'Hope it's enough. It's been going on for 20 minutes. We blocked in our room. There are sounds of a gun battle.'

The final moments of the terrorist were captured on camera as, weapon in hand, he prowled the streets of Sousse. With the gunman dead, police pursued suspects through the streets of Sousse, which is about 90 miles south of the capital Tunis.

More than three hours after the massacre an apparent accomplice was arrested near the motorway.

Pictures showed him being punched in the face by a furious woman as he was marched through the town by armed police.

Police were pictured detaining several men in the aftermath of the carnage but it was not clear last night whether the suspects were connected to the attack.

While there were multiple accounts of what happened, most witnesses spoke of a lone gunman who was later shot dead by the Tunisian security forces.

GUNMAN WAS RIGHT NEXT TO US... WE SAW PEOPLE DYING

Two terrified British women were yards from the attacker when he pulled a gun from behind an umbrella and started to shoot.

Ellie Makin, 22, of Ripon, North Yorkshire, and her friend Debbie Horsfall, from Huddersfield, were relaxing on the beach when the Tunisian horror began.

Speaking from her barricaded hotel room last night, Miss Makin said: 'We were on the beach and there was a man on our right with an umbrella.

'He dropped the umbrella and pulled a gun, he started shooting everyone on the right. He was just shooting people and they dropped to the floor. I saw people dying around me.

'Everyone started screaming to run, so we just turned and ran.'

The pair sprinted to the hotel to hide from the attacker, but were told by staff the sounds were just a lawnmower.

Miss Makin, a tennis coach, said: 'I said 'No it's not, that's gunfire!' No one knew what they were doing.'

Before long the gunman burst into the hotel and started to shoot. Miss Makin ran upstairs and hid in a stranger's room. Last night said she 'had never feared for her life as much as today'.

Holed up with Miss Horsfall last night, she said there was not enough security surrounding the hotel.

She said: 'And now there's no police, no one protecting us. They say they've got the place on lockdown, that's bull****.

'They told us to get into our rooms, but we've got another room as there was shooting in the one next to it.

'We don't want to stay in here. We just want to get home now, right now. I want to go home. No one is telling us anything, people are saying there's still attackers on the run but we don't know.

'I couldn't get through to the Foreign Office for an hour and a half and they just told me to wait for a call.

'Another man staying here went to check out outside and said he saw no police, no cordon, anything.'

Miss Makin posted a picture of her Facebook update on Twitter last night. It said: 'The most terrifying day of my life in Tunisia.

'I have never feared for my life as much as today. Get me back home. Scared isn't even the word.'

Ellie's father, Michael, contacted the Daily Mail to say there was 'barely any security' in the Imperial Marhaba hotel where his daughter is staying.

Mr Makin said: 'My daughter was the first person to see the gunmen. She saw the man next to her get shot dead.

'She ran back to the hotel and shouted the man had a gun. She is OK, but she said there is barely any security at the hotel. It's really worrying.'

When Miss Horsfall took refuge in the hotel she heard a woman say her husband had been shot. 'All we could think of was we're next,' she said.

Stacey Webb, 23, from Barry, South Wales, said she locked herself in a hotel bathroom with seven others following the shooting. I have never been more scared in my life but I hope God is with me,' she said.

Kelsie Collins, 24, of Pontypridd, who is staying at the Sahara Beach Resort near the seafront, said her family had been told to stay in their room.

She said: 'There's mostly Brits here in the hotel but nobody is really saying anything to each other, everyone's confused and in shock.'

Zohra Driss, owner of the Marhaba, confirmed the gunman started firing from the beach before moving on to the hotel swimming pool. Last night it was claimed that around 15 young Tunisians had been stopped from travelling to Belgrade and 30 others banned from travelling to Istanbul for reasons that were not disclosed.

Interior ministry sources denied reports that Tunisians aged under 35 had been banned from leaving the country.

But they admitted port and airport controls had been strengthened and youngsters were being quizzed as part of 'preventative measures'.

The President has also called up all army reservists, placing them on active service around the country, and announced all tourist police on patrol in hotels and beaches would now be armed following the bloodbath.

Tunisia has seen militant Islamists gain strength since the overthrow of long-serving ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in a popular uprising in 2011.

Democratic elections after the removal of Ben Ali saw the moderate Islamist Ennahda party take power before the secularist Nidaa Tounes party won control following a parliamentary poll in October.

Neither party has been able effectively to combat Islamist violence - but in the wake of this attack the government has closed 80 mosques with links to extremists.

This has been made worse by a conflict in neighbouring Libya and by Tunisian fighters returning home after going to join Islamist campaigns in Iraq and Syria where up to 10,000 have fought.

Around 1.2million tourists – a third of them British – visit Tunisia every year. Most are drawn to Sousse, which has large beachfront hotels and wide sandy beaches.
Slaughter on the sunbeds: Five Britons killed by ISIS as UK police told 'You're next'

Terror outrages in three countries left 63 people dead yesterday, five of them British.

Security officials fear the slaughter in Tunisia, Kuwait and France could be followed by further attacks around the globe – including on police and soldiers in the UK.

The atrocities – timed to coincide with the Muslim festival of Ramadan – are believed to have been co-ordinated by Islamic State.

The British victims died in the Tunisian resort of El Kantaoui near Sousse. A gunman disguised as a tourist and hiding a Kalashnikov under an umbrella ran amok among holidaymakers relaxing on the beach. A 16-year-old Briton saw his parents and grandmother gunned down in front of him.



Another Briton became a human shield to save the life of his girlfriend. Thirty-seven people were killed and 36 wounded at the Imperial Marhaba and Bellevue hotels.

In Lyon, a businessman was decapitated in an attack on a gas plant and a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Kuwaiti mosque, killing 25.

The triple terror attacks came as:

UK police were put on alert and the armed forces told not to wear their uniforms in public;

David Cameron expressed Britain's 'solidarity in fighting this evil of terrorism';

The military is on standby to help evacuate the 20,000 UK tourists in Tunisia if needed;

The Tunisian fanatic selected Western tourists before opening fire;

France said the gas plant suspect was a known extremist.

In Tunisia, terrified British families told how they ran for their lives and cowered in their rooms to escape the horror on the beach. The gunman walked 'from sun shade to sun shade' selecting his victims, singling out the British.

Officials said Tunisians, Germans and Belgians were also among the dead.

The killer was identified as Seifeddine Rezgui, 23, an aviation student from the Tunisian city of Kairouan.

The attacks come just four days after Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, a spokesman for IS, chillingly called on followers to strike against its enemies during Ramadan.

He said: 'O Allah make this month a month of victories for the Muslims everywhere and make it a month of disasters, defeats, and disgrace for the kuffar (unbelievers) everywhere.'

Intelligence officials in London and Washington have warned of the significance of the unprecedented threat to use Ramadan as a trigger for atrocities.

One senior UK official said of the attacks in France and Tunisia: 'It could happen here. We have been lucky so far. We have been one step ahead and we have managed to stop them – but we will not stop every one.'

Speaking in Brussels yesterday, David Cameron warned: 'This is a threat that faces all of us. These events have taken place today in Tunisia and in France but they can happen anywhere.'

Security sources in the UK say Islamist fanatics are determined to carry out an atrocity against a police officer or another member of the Armed Forces, in the wake of the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby in south-east London.

Soldiers have been told not to wear their uniforms outside barracks amid intelligence that fanatics are searching the internet for the locations of military bases and displays.

Sajjan Gohel of the Asia-Pacific Foundation think-tank said: 'We need to wait to see if the attacks are linked, but Islamic State is going to take credit for all three. Even if they are not directly coordinated attacks, they are very likely to be inspired by IS.'

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