TerrorismTunisian police deliberately delayed responding to 2015 terrorist massacre at beach resort

An inquest into the shooting rampage in Tunisia that killed thirty Britons and other victims, was told that Tunisian security forces deliberately slowed down responding to the terrorist attack on holidaymakers in a beach hotel.

A local investigation in Tunisia criticized the police for stalling on purpose as they made their way to the scene of the killings.

The Guardian reports that the terrorist, Seifeddine Rezgui, walked through the Imperial Marhaba hotel, methodically and calmly shooting holidaymakers.

The June 2015 attack was the deadliest terrorist attack on British citizens since the London Tube bombings in May 2005.

Samantha Leek QC said a report by Tunisian Judge Akremi had identified failings by local police units – units which could have stopped the massacre had they acted more quickly.

She said an unnamed source in the Tunisian interior ministry had told the judge some Tunisian security officers nearby had consciously slowed down their arrival.

Leek said: “He said the units that should have intervened in the events deliberately and unjustifiably slowed down to delay their arrival at the hotel.

“They had the ability to put an end to the attack before the police arrived but wasted a considerable amount of time in getting to the hotel.”

Last year the Tunisian state attorney charged six Tunisian policemen with “poor reactivity” for their conduct during the attacks.

Leek said: “On the 26^th of June 2015, 38 tourists became victims of a terrorist attack at the Imperial Marhaba hotel in Sousse.

“On that day a gunman entered the hotel from its beach, carrying an automatic weapon and a number of explosives.

“He systematically took the lives of 38 people who had travelled to Tunisia for relaxation and enjoyment. Thirty eight people who needlessly lost their lives.”

The gunman was dropped off in a street north of the hotel by an unidentified man driving a white Peugeot van.

CCTV footage showed him calmly walking south along the beach’s shoreline carrying a white parasol concealing his automatic weapon.

When he reached the hotel’s guests sun-bathing on the beach, he opened fire.

Rezgui then left the beach and headed toward the hotel, shooting guests who were at the hotel’s swimming pool, and then entered the hotel, continuing shooting.

Twenty people were shot dead on the beach, eight inside the hotel, and another ten on the hotel grounds.

Rezgui then returned to the beach, but the police was already there and they shot him dead.

Jane Marriott, a senior Foreign Office official, told the inquest the government had “no prior knowledge” of the attack. She said the government was aware Islamic State had put out “generalized threats pertaining to Tunisia on open source” such as online and on social media.

The inquest is expected to last a week to ten days.