Most of the 39 people killed Friday in the Tunisian beach hotel attack were British citizens, Tunisia’s Prime Minister Habib Essid said. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria claimed responsibility for the attack.
“The dead are British, Germans and Belgian, but most of them are British, without giving any figures,” Essid told reporters on Friday night, Reuters reported.
“I’m afraid that the British public need to be prepared for the fact that many of those killed were British,” Prime Minister David Cameron said. U.K. officials are working with Tunisian authorities to identify the dead.
A Tunisian gunman disguised as a tourist opened fire on the tourists who were soaking up the sun on the beach outside the Imperial Marhaba resort hotel in the Tunisian town of Sousse. Witnesses report that the attacker seemed familiar with the hotel, a popular tourist destination. He was shot dead by police.
Thousands of tourists are reportedly evacuating in the wake of Friday’s terrorist attack, the worst in the country’s history.
The Islamic State took credit for the attack and tweeted photos of the alleged gunman, a 23-year-old engineering student named Saifeddine Rezgui. In the photo he is seen smiling next to two Kalashnikovs.
“Soldier of the Khalifat,” the Islamic State tweeted according to the Telegraph. “May god accept him, a night of the Sousse invasion in the muslim Tunisia.”
Tunisian authorities report that the student had never traveled abroad and they had no indication the student had become radicalized.
His uncle told the Telegraph that they were “shocked” when they saw photos of him in connection with the attack. “Yes, he went to mosque and prayed, but just like the other young men, he would then go to a cafe and play football with his friends,” said his uncle, Ali Al-Rezgui. “I last saw him on Thursday, he said ‘hello,’ and then he left that night and went to his friend’s house. We didn’t know where he was going, and there were no goodbyes. The entire family is shocked at the hidden reality of what he was capable of.”
