Tunisia makes first beach attack arrests as UK urges fightback
1 July 2015 5:11 AM IST
British Home Secretary Theresa May, speaking at the scene of Friday’s gun attack at a Tunisian holiday resort, vowed that “the terrorists will not win” after London warned that Britain’s death toll could rise to “around 30”.
The massacre, claimed by the Islamic State group, was the deadliest for Britain since the 2005 London bombings, and there are fears it could inflict a devastating blow to Tunisia’s vital tourism industry.
Interior Minister <g data-gr-id="43" style="display: inline; color: inherit !important; font-size: inherit !important; -webkit-background-size: 0px 2px, 100% 2px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAA+gAAAACCAYAAADLlPadAAAABmJLR0QA/wD/AP+gvaeTAAAAK0lEQVRYhe3OMQEAIAwDsA6DHPh/ZoTJ2JMoSPW7PwAAAMCqsx0AAAAAkgHerQKHq3BtYQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==), url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAACCAYAAACZgbYnAAAABmJLR0QA/wD/AP+gvaeTAAAAEklEQVQImWP4vGvnfyYGBgYGABl4A2hm/SKhAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); background-size: 0px 2px, 100% 2px; background-position: 200% 100%, 0px 100%; background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat;">Hajem</g> Gharsalli said the authorities had arrested “a significant number of people from the network that was behind this terrorist criminal”, referring to the lone gunman.
May travelled on Monday to the resort of Port el Kantaoui south of Tunis, and promised to fight extremism in the wake of the attack.
“We will be united in working together to defeat them but united also in working to defend our values,” May said at a joint news conference with her German, French and Tunisian counterparts after visiting the scene of the killings.
“We are resolved... to defeat those who would do us harm, to defeat those who would undermine our freedom and democracy and to ensure that the terrorists do not win,” she added.
May and the German and French interior ministers, Thomas de Maiziere and Bernard Cazeneuve, joined Tunisian officials in laying a wreath in the sand near the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel where the attack happened.
A spokesperson for British Prime Minister David Cameron, meanwhile, said Britain had identified 18 of its nationals killed, but warned that the number may rise to “around 30”.
Tunisia says four other victims have been identified as being tourists from Germany, Portugal, Ireland and Belgium.
Ireland said on Sunday three of its citizens were killed.
Shocking new amateur footage from the attack has emerged on social media, showing the gunman walking calmly along the shore and bloodied bodies on the sand.
Intermittent gunfire can be heard in the 11-minute amateur video, recorded by a Tunisian man using his mobile phone who can be heard asking: “Why do you kill people? Why?”
The attacker, identified as 23-year-old student Seifeddine Rezgui, pulled a Kalashnikov assault rifle from inside a beach umbrella and opened fire on holidaymakers at the resort before being shot dead.
Flowers have been laid along the beach near the resort.
On Monday, handwritten messages could be seen placed next to the flowers reading “We are sorry” and “We are Muslims, not terrorists”.
Cameron vowed to mount a full investigation and called for “a response at home and abroad” to violent Islamic fundamentalism.
Muslim graves in UK cemetery damaged after Tunisia attack
At least ten graves in the Muslim section of a cemetery in Nottingham have been vandalised in a hate crime that took place in the wake of the terror attack in Tunisia in which 38 people, mostly Britons, lost their lives.
Damage caused to graves in the Muslim section of a cemetery in the wake of the Tunisia terror attack claimed by the Islamic State has been condemned as an attempt to divide communities. Nottingham city council said it was treating the damage to at least 10 plots at High Wood cemetery in Bulwell as a hate crime.
Nottinghamshire police have stepped up patrols at the cemetery and other sites after name plaques and decorative lights on Muslim and non-Muslim plots were damaged at the weekend. The council’s deputy leader, Graham Chapman, was quoted by Press Association as saying, “We totally condemn what has taken place at High Wood cemetery. This irresponsible act of hatred achieves absolutely nothing.” “We will be increasing security at the cemetery and, although we cannot guarantee solving this hate crime, the council will be working with the police to do our utmost to track down the perpetrators.”
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