Tunisia: Student gunman kills 27 people in Sousse hotel terror attack

Tunis, Tunisia: A gunman opened fire at tourists at a beach resort in Tunisia on Friday, leaving at least 27 people dead, including foreigners, in what the authorities branded a “terrorist attack”. [caption id=“attachment_2314522” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File picture of tourists enjoying the beach near a four-star hotel in the resort town of Sousse. AFP[/caption] Witnesses described scenes of panic and confusion after the shooting at a hotel in the district of Sousse, about 140 kilometres (87 miles) south of Tunis. The toll from the attack is “27 dead including tourists,” said Mohamed Ali Aroui, Interior Ministry spokesman without giving their nationalities. “It was a terrorist attack” against the Marhaba hotel, he said. “The assailant was killed.” he added. The gunman behind the attack was a Tunisian student previously unknown to police, a top official said. “He is Tunisian, originally from the Kairouan region (in central Tunisia). He is a student,” Secretary of State for Security Rafik Chelly told Mosaique FM radio. “This person was not known (to us),” he added. The shooting comes just months after a March attack on the Bardo National Museum in Tunis killed 21 foreign tourists and a policeman. In October 2013, a suicide bomber blew himself in a botched attack on a beach in Sousse while security forces foiled another planned attack nearby. The shooting happened in front of a hotel in El Kantaoui in central Tunisia, it said. Further details were not immediately available. AFP