The world watched in horror last
month as gunman Seifeddine Rezgui killed 38 people at the Tunisian
resort of Sousse. Survivors of the attack tell Panorama's Jane Corbin
what it was like to go through the experience.
Holidaymakers
on the beach in front of the Imperial Marhaba Hotel were just about
getting ready for lunch. As it neared midday on 26 June, they relaxed on
sun loungers. New arrivals had just had their introductory meeting with
a tour rep. Some of them walked across the hot sand for a swim. Others
tried paragliding. All was calm as temperatures rose towards the low
30s.
Angela Evans, from King's Lynn, Norfolk
I've been going on holiday to
Tunisia for 15 to 20 years. I like the people. I love the white, sandy
beaches. And I don't think I've ever been to a bad hotel, so you're
almost guaranteed a good holiday there.
We got to Tunisia the
previous day and, that morning, we had a welcome meeting with Thomson's.
It was very enlightening. My friend wanted to go on the camels, so we
arranged a camel trip.
I'd heard good reports about the area and the hotel and that it was
safe. The pictures looked nice, so we booked the holiday and off we
went.
My son Callum, being a teenager, didn't want to get up so
didn't join myself and Thomas for breakfast. We got ready, went
downstairs, had breakfast and then sat round the pool and read a book.
Tom Richards, Sam's son
I was switching between reading a book and listening to music, just sunbathing, trying to catch the rays.
Ellie Makin, from North Yorkshire, a tennis coach
It was lovely, very clear, very
nice. White sandy beaches and the water was lovely. It was just like
any other morning. We thought we'd go on a walk to the other end of the
beach. So we walked for about 40 minutes. When we got back we went into
the sea to cool down and went back to the sunbed. I ended up standing up
to cool down.
Then I just happened to look to the right-hand side and, all of a sudden, I saw a man with a gun.
Most
didn't notice as a slim figure, dressed in black shorts and T-shirt,
turned up on the beach. Tunisian student Seifeddine Rezgui removed a
Kalashnikov he'd concealed in a parasol.
Ellie: He
brought out this massive black gun and started shooting everybody. He
shot all around him. People were dropping to the floor so quickly. There
are no words to describe how quickly it happened. It was literally
split-second, and then we just ran. I ran for my life. Angela:
At first I thought it was fireworks, firecrackers. My friend and I
looked up and instantly realised it wasn't. It was a boy, a young man,
dressed all in black with a huge gun. He was systematically going from
side to side, shooting people, killing them, people who were lying on
sun loungers. He was murdering them. We saw people trying to run. They
were just targets to him.
Tony Callaghan, from Norfolk, with wife Christine
In my time in the Royal Air Force I fired many automatic weapons myself. I knew that that was sustained gunfire.
I
started shouting. First of all I said to my wife: "Run back to the
hotel. Take cover." But I couldn't go with her at that point because
there were too many people who were just lazing on the loungers, just
looking up, without any sense of urgency. I started shouting at the top
of my voice for people to run. I was waving my arms around and I must
have stayed there another minute or more.
Christine Callaghan, Tony's wife
I was walking as fast as I
could. My heart was beating so fast I was trembling. As I started to
cry, a lady came towards me with her husband, asked if I was on my own,
put her arms round me and gave me a hug.
Panic spread among those on the beach.
Issam Bezi, from Tunisia, a cigarette-seller
Most people around us tried to
lie down on the ground. My friend and I were among them. But many people
panicked and stood up to see what was going on and they were shot at.
Those who were lying down were safer. Angela: We
looked at each other and played dead. We threw ourselves to the ground,
put our heads right in the sand. We couldn't see anything but could
still hear. All you could hear was this loud noise. Such a heavy noise
it was, and it was coming closer and closer. He was getting nearer.
The gunman kept on firing at holidaymakers.
Ellie: We
ran back to the hotel. We could hear shots getting louder and him
getting closer. The screaming was awful. It was so loud. It was worse
than babies crying 24/7. People's arms were in the air. You see it on TV
and think: "God, that's awful." Seeing it yourself, with your own eyes,
it was even worse.
Aimen Dar Hassine, a Tunisian, on holiday in the area
For two minutes he was shooting and killing people. People were running. My friend took a little girl and helped her to escape.
It
quickly became obvious to the Tunisians on the beach that 23-year-old
Rezgui was only trying to shoot Westerners. Some tried to reason with
him.
Mohamed Mokhtar, organising water-sports with Mehdi Jamelt
We said: "Please stop shooting." He didn't listen to us. He just kept shooting. He didn't care.
Mehdi Jamelt, also organising water-sports
I found two tourists in the water, running away from the bullets. I talked to them and got them into my boat.
The surviving tourists on the beach were in a state of terror and confusion, as the gunman walked within a few metres of them.
Angela: There
was no more screaming. [Rezgui] was at the side of me. I was lying down
and I could see his feet. At that time you just know you're going to
die in a minute.
Then there was a click and something dropped
because the sand came up over me. There was another, louder click,
almost a crunch. I suppose he'd run out of ammunition, but he'd
refilled.
He was above. He was just there. I just remember
thinking: "Oh, God." Then there was a bang, a big bang. I don't know
what it was, but it was enough for him to turn. I knew he'd turned
because of all the sand that came up on me. Issam: As
soon as people started to group together, he started to shoot more
intensively. I didn't move, because he was shooting so close to us. I
saw him load the second magazine.
Rezgui,
seemingly calm, moved methodically, seeking out more victims. He walked
up the beach to the swimming pool in the hotel grounds. Guests there
were initially unsure what was going on.
Sam: We
were just lying there thinking "we'll have to go and get some lunch"
and heard a loud, continuous banging. I thought: "Why is somebody
letting off fireworks?" It really sounded like fireworks. I thought:
"That's a bit silly because it's light." And then it stopped for a
while. Tom: A
lot of people stopped still and looked up. It was like a deathly quiet,
a horrible eerie feel. Everyone was looking around to see what was
going on and I heard someone say: "People are running from the beach.
People are running from the beach." So automatically you stand up and
look. Then it happened again - more gunfire - and that's when I turned
to my mum and said: "Run. Run. That's not fireworks. Just run." Sam: So
we got up, picked up our belongings - I don't know why - and ran from
where we were and just kept running and running and running. Issam: He was shooting by the pool. He took a lot of time at the pool. He had a grenade that he threw in the pool. Mohamed:
He was shooting. One [victim] and then he'd go to the next one. He was
like a professional. We tried to help the people. There were old people
and young. What did they do to [deserve to] die? Sam: He
was behind us. We could hear him shooting. It was getting louder. I
didn't look back. I just ran towards the hotel, up the steps to the
right of the hotel. There were loads of other tourists there. They were
running in the same direction. We knew at that point it was obviously
guns but it sounded like there were five or six of them.
Hotel staff attempted to get as many people as possible to safety.
Sam:
There was a receptionist waving us through a door, so we ran with some
other guests through a door, up a flight of stairs and just kept running
down a corridor which was the staff area. The staff there were looking
at us saying: "What are you what are you doing here?" And we said:
"There's a gunman shooting. There's a gunman." They looked really
shocked.
Emboldened by the fact that Rezgui wasn't shooting at Tunisians, some started to follow him.
Aimen:
We encouraged each other and we decided to get in the hotel and kill
the terrorist. And I started filming. I was afraid when he was shooting.
But when I followed him and filmed him, I didn't care if I was killed.
We must defend our lives and protect ourselves.
He wasn't a big man. He was armed. It was the Kalashnikov that gave him power.
Media captionGunfire and the sound of a grenade going off in the attack in Tunisia in June 2015, as filmed by Aimen Dar Hassine.
Angela was still lying on the beach, pretending to be dead.
Angela:
I could hear the shootings were going away. You could tell they were
moving up to the hotel. And at that point we both looked at each other
under the sun loungers.
We got up. We held hands. I said: "Look,
we've got to go. We've got to go." I knew there was another hotel next
door, so we both started running. But I couldn't run very far and I
ended up crawling a lot of the way. I don't think I'll ever be able to
explain that fear. I don't know a word big enough.
I had to go
through these [dead and injured] people and this lady. She just said:
"Please help me. Please help me." And it wasn't like I thought bullet
holes [would be]. You think it's going to be a hole, but they were like
gouges out of her body and I could only say, "I'll be back. I'll come
back."
There was no one moving. We just had to keep moving until we got to the next hotel.
Angela
made her way towards the Imperial's neighbouring hotel, the Bellevue
Park, thinking this would offer safety. Ellie was already inside the
lobby.
Ellie: I
asked the staff had they rung the police. Had they done anything about
it? Was security aware? They said they didn't know what was going on.
They weren't sure.
[They asked] could they do anything to assure
us. I said: "Well, I'm asking you the questions. You should be
reassuring me, telling me that there's police coming." There was a
massive confusion. Everybody was running around.
Zohra Driss, owner of the Imperial, Tunisian MP
At the time of the attack I was
at another hotel about 1km away. I got the phone call to tell me that
the attack had started, that there was a terrorist in the hotel. I
thought immediately of my clients and my staff. I was distraught. My
first reaction was to ring the minister of the interior while I was
still on my way, to inform him of the disaster. From the Imperial's outdoor pool area, the gunman walked into the spa complex to the side. Issam:
People in the hotel were screaming. They couldn't see him. They just
heard the sound of him shooting. People were crying and running after
him. People were not so far from him.
The
gunman made his way into the hotel and up to the first-floor management
area where more than 20 tourists, including Sam and Tom, had fled.
Sam: We carried on running down the corridor and we came to a dead end. Tom:
As we turned around, I heard two shots fired. As people parted ways, I
saw two people had been shot right at the bottom of the corridor and
there was just one gunman stood right at the end of the corridor
opposite me. It was like something off a horror movie - the bad guy
being at the end of the corridor.
Everyone was trying to get into
the nearest door, or down the corridor - scurrying, trying to find
anything. As all this happened he must have thrown a grenade and also
shot in my direction. It landed about a metre-and-a-half/two metres in
front of me. Sam: I felt the shrapnel hit the back of my leg and that's when Thomas fell to the floor and said: "I've been hit. I've been hit." Tom: I remember watching it, like in slow motion. I got blown back by the blast of the grenade. Sam: It happened so quickly. I thought at that point that we weren't going to survive this.
Tony Callaghan, who'd found his wife Christine after leaving the beach, was also in the corridor.
Tony: The
gunman had followed us up and was firing in the corridor. I felt a
bullet hit my left calf as I was running. Chris was right behind me. I
just turned into this little alcove and the chap in front of me, with
another guy, had burst the door open and we all sort of dived into an
office.
The first chap was attempting to put a bookcase against
the door to barricade it. But I looked round and Chris wasn't with me. I
shouted out my wife's name and "where is she?" A chap said: "You know
we can't go out. What if the gunman's there?"
I said I needed to
be out there with her. As I said that I heard my wife shouting out:
"Tony, please help me. I've been shot." I was inside, relatively safe,
and I couldn't do anything about it.
I couldn't get outside to help her. Christine: I was so frightened. I thought they were going to come and finish us off. I was so traumatised. Tony:
The nightmare that I can't get out of my mind is not being able to help
Chris when she was shot. I feel guilty I couldn't help her. But I
couldn't do anything else. I couldn't jeopardise the other five people
in that room. That will stick with me. I've got to try and come to terms
with that. Zohra: He
shot in all directions. It was like a robot shooting everywhere. The
staff saved a huge number, dozens, if not hundreds, of clients. Without
them there would surely have been a much higher death toll.
In the Bellevue Hotel, next door, Ellie was by now hiding under a bed in case the gunman entered and searched the building.
Ellie: I
was texting my parents, saying: "I love you all so much and this is
probably going to be the end." What do you say to family that you don't
think you're ever going to see again? You just pour your heart out. I
was doing that for about 40 minutes, not knowing if I was going home or
if I was going to be coming back in a body bag.
The
gunman left the staff area of the Imperial and walked back out on to
the beach. The Tunisians once again tried to get him to stop.
Aimen:
I wanted to stand in his way and hit him with something. When I saw he
was thin, I realised I could attack him even if he was armed. He took
piece of paper from his bag. I think it showed how to find his way
around. Then he prepared a grenade. He picked up his Kalashnikov.
There was a disagreement on the beach.
Mehdi: When
I saw the tourist policeman, I said to him: "Why aren't you shooting
the terrorist?" He said to me: "I don't have a bulletproof vest." Mohamed: I told him: "I've got no vest, but I'm going." He said: "It's your risk if you die." I said: "OK, no problem, no problem."
The
police were scared. One said: "If he sees me with a police T-shirt, he
will shoot me." So he rolled up the T-shirt in his hand and he ran with
the people.
A young Tunisian man in
red shorts seized a gun from an unwilling policeman and headed off to
try to fire it at Rezgui. He missed him and the gun jammed after two
shots.
There were reports from
some tourists of seeing a second gunman in red shorts. But Aimen's
video, taken together with Tunisian eyewitnesses, leaves little doubt
that the so-called second gunman was in fact the brave Tunisian in red
shorts.
Rezgui
retaliated to being fired at by throwing a grenade, forcing the group
of Tunisians following him to drop back and re-group. He moved back to
the beach, to the area in front of the Bellevue hotel.
By now, Angela had crawled along the beach to the Bellevue, where a member of staff hid her in his office.
Angela: There
was a lot of shooting going on. I didn't know if I was ever going to
get home. I didn't know if I was going to get out of the room and if
there were a lot of these murderers, whether they were going to come and
search everyone out. I did a lot of praying.
Several Tunisians formed a human chain outside the Bellevue to prevent Rezgui entering and killing more tourists.
Mehdi: He
asked me: "Why are you here?" So I said to him: "You are destroying my
livelihood by murdering people. And you ask me: 'Why are you here?'"
I
pulled two pots from the beach and tried to hit him with them. He
wasn't shooting any Arabs. So I was among those who could get near him
and wouldn't be harmed.
Sam and Tom, both wounded, were still hiding in the toilets in the management area of the Imperial.
Sam:
We heard this other girl who followed us in there and she was crying in
the toilet next door. I was saying: "Please be quiet. Be quiet." We
didn't know if he was still in the corridor or if there were more of
them. So we brought her into the toilet and she passed out. We had to
sit her on the toilet and bring her round. Tom: She
had a massive piece of shrapnel in her leg. I said to her: "I'm going
to have to take this out if I'm going to stop the bleeding." So she said
OK, and I pulled it out and packed her leg with tissue paper, and used
my top to tie it round to try and stop the bleeding. Then I did the same
with my mum's leg. Sam: I
felt so sick. I thought: "This is it. We're not going to survive this."
I didn't even know if my youngest son was OK. We were in sheer panic.
Luckily we had our mobiles with us. The lady of the family that had
Callum - they'd taken him and barricaded themselves in - rang me and
said: "We've got Callum."
The
killer was followed along the beach by a human chain, barring him from
entering the Bellevue Hotel. He began to run, turning into an alley
leading from the beach to a shopping street.
Aimen: We were running behind him. We were all running behind him.
Mark Barlow and Becky Catterick, from Scunthorpe, had already escaped the beach.
Mark Barlow, from Scunthorpe, visiting with his girlfriend Becky
Becky was struggling to run in flip-flops and so I was dragging her up the road. She couldn't even run.
Becky Catterick
It was fear. I was frozen, basically.
Some shopkeepers offered shelter to terrified tourists.
Ajmi Boubakir, Tunisia, a souvenir shop owner
[Rezgui] came from the beach. I
said: "What's the problem?" Someone told me: "Terrorist, terrorist." I
said: "OK, you come in. Go inside. Go inside." They came inside and they
stayed here, kept quiet. Everyone stayed. I said: "Listen, if something
happens, I will protect you until the end."
Rezgui fired several shots at the door of Ajmi's shop. Mark and Becky were already taking refuge in another shop nearby.
Mark: We
were all silent. You could hear a pin drop in the toilet that we were
in. Everything was going on outside. It was just constant gunfire. Becky: It
was getting closer and closer and you could hear it louder and louder. I
turned to Mark and [other friends] and said: "You know, I love you
guys." Mark: I
said: "I love you back." I was quiet and, with my head down, I was
holding everybody, arms round everyone, trying to keep calm.
Builder Moncef Mayel was watching from a rooftop above the street.
Moncef Mayel, from Tunisia, a builder
The tourists were all running,
as were the hotel workers. We saw the silhouette of someone running
about on the beach but then he came up this street here.
As he
came closer, I shouted insults at him, asking him what he was doing,
that this was contrary to Islam, that what he was doing was wrong, that
he was a terrorist, stuff like that.
He raised his gun and fired
but his aim was off because he was tired. I took tiles and threw them
down on him. I was throwing down the second lot when my neighbour
started shouting: "Stop. He's fallen. He's fallen."
After
apparently being shot once by a police officer, Rezgui got up again,
started moving and fired at police. But, 38 minutes after he began
shooting tourists, police finally cornered him further down the street.
Aimen: He
fell down and he stood up again. After that, he started shooting at the
police. There were so many policemen there. He tried to run away but he
was injured. There were lots and lots of bullets. There were so many
policemen.
Rezgui continued to fire his Kalashnikov. Police shot him several times.
Aimen:
I was sad because I hoped that they wouldn't kill him, but arrest him
alive. It would have been better if he was arrested - to be accountable
and to be asked about the motive behind killing those people.
The gunman was dead, but those back at the Bellevue had no idea what was going on, or whether they were safe.
Angela:
There was an awful lot of gunshots, a lot of noise. A man came back
into the office to say that the police had killed him and that it was
alright now, we could come out. But there was still more shooting. It
didn't make sense. So, again, we wouldn't come out and he went away. He
came back, maybe five minutes later, to try and reassure us we could
come out, so we did.
There were scenes of devastation at the Imperial.
Sam: During
all this time, there was a lady who was badly injured from the grenade
in the corridor [of the Imperial]. I can hear still hear now: "Help me.
Help me. I'm dying." At the end of the day, we were just too scared to
come out. That's still upsetting for me now because I couldn't go and
help her. I was too frightened to go out there. But eventually we heard
friendly voices. At that point we went out and had a look and the lady
was being attended by the medics, but she was very badly injured. I just
feel awful inside that I didn't go out and help her.
You don't
normally see things like that, the poor, poor people in that corridor.
It'll take a long time to be able to come to terms with a lot of that,
that happened there. Tom: Right at the end of the corridor there were two dead bodies. We had to walk around them to get out. Sam: It was horrific. How we didn't die in that corridor is unbelievable.
Tony and Christine were reunited.
Tony:
When we thought it was safe enough to go out, we pulled the barricade
away and got out. I could then see what carnage had taken place in the
corridor.
As soon as I saw Chris I was absolutely overwhelmed by
what I saw. It was an appalling sight - Chris's leg 90 degrees across
her body.
I gave her a great big hug and I remember saying if you
lose your leg - because we thought her leg might go - it doesn't matter.
We're alive and we're actually going to get through this together, no
matter what injuries we've got. I comforted my wife.
Others were less fortunate.
Tony: A lady obviously had been shot in the back. Her husband was there. He was OK. He was frantic, didn't know what to do.
In
one of the little offices to the right there was a young guy, sitting
in a chair, and his girlfriend was dead. He was holding her hand and he
said: "What do I do?" I said: "Have you checked for her pulse?" I pulled
him out of the way and I checked and there was no pulse whatsoever.
I said: "I'm so sorry. I think she's passed away." He said they were meant to be getting married in two weeks' time.
Once
the immediate shock of the attack was over, guests were desperate to
know what had happened to their friends and loved ones.
Zohra:
It was total chaos. People didn't know who had died, who was injured.
People were looking for their partners, their families, their personal
friends. Even among the staff, we didn't know who was or who wasn't
dead. There were moments of fear, seeing the bodies, seeing this
terrible massacre. Angela: People had no time. They couldn't do anything. They were just gunned down.
It
took police almost three hours to check whether Rezgui was wired with
explosives before taking his body away. Only then were Mark and Becky
able to leave the shop where they were hiding.
Becky:
It didn't actually hit me until I'd sat down in the hotel reception and
my mum answered the phone. I said: "I'm alive. I'm safe." And she burst
out crying. That's when it hit us all, when we knew we were safe.
The survivors of the Imperial Hotel massacre are trying to come to terms with their trauma.
Tom: I wouldn't want to ever be in that situation ever again and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Becky: There've
been terrorist attacks in the UK and people still go to London, on the
Tube, where the bombings were. It could happen anywhere, at any time at
any location. You're never really truly safe anywhere. So it wouldn't
stop me from going back to the country.
Tunisia's tourism industry is expected to be heavily damaged by the attack.
Zohra:
The British have always been our friends. I'd like to say to them:
"Come back. You're very welcome here. We'll battle together to fight for
individual freedom, for human freedom."
Of
the 38 people Seifeddine Rezgui killed, 30 were British. All the
British tourists interviewed by Panorama are back at home. Sam and Tom
are recovering from their injuries and coming to terms with what
happened.
Christine is still
recovering from being shot - her injuries are described as
"life-changing". She has had three operations on her leg and is due to
have another. She is spending time with Tony, her children and
grandchildren.
The relative calm of being back in the UK has allowed survivors time to contemplate what happened.
Angela:
I have nightmares. I can see and hear it in the daytime. I just hope
that it will maybe ease and let me sleep and that every minute isn't
preoccupied with it. The noise, the noise of that gun. It's still coming
towards me.
I went to church the other day. I went to look for answers. Those poor people didn't even have time to say: "Please help."
I didn't get answers. But I realised I was there to ask for them to be looked after. Terror on the beach Panorama: Terror on the Beach will be shown on BBC One at 21:00 BST on Thursday. It will be available after that on the BBC iPlayer
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