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'Hope it's enough': British man tweets from inside barricaded Tunisia hotel room after gunman storms resort, killing 38

'We are blocked in our room, there are sounds of a gun battle'

Heather Saul
Saturday 27 June 2015 11:47 BST
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John Yeoman posted this picture on Twitter
John Yeoman posted this picture on Twitter

A survivor of the Tunisia terror attack tweeted the moment a gunman went on a rampage at a beach resort, posting a picture of his barricaded hotel door with the caption: “Hope it’s enough”.

John Yeoman was on holiday in the popular tourist resort of Sousse when the attacker began shooting holidaymakers on the beach where his hotel was located.

The gunman then moved to a hotel and started firing indiscriminately at tourists sat inside, killing 38 people, the majority of who are reported to be British.

In a series of tweets, Mr Yeoman said he and his wife ran from the pool to their Bellevue hotel room and blocked the door with the bed and a chair.

“We were in the pool when we heard automatic gun fire,” he wrote on Twitter. “People ran past saying there was an armed man on the beach."

Other tourists from the UK described the terrifying moment the gunman opened fire. One holidaymaker recalled saying goodbye to his wife after gunshots rang out, telling the BBC: ''I hid under a table and kissed my wife goodbye, thinking that was going to be the end''.

Saera Wilson, from Trehafod, in Wales, told the broadcaster her fiancé was shot in the shoulder, chest and hip after using his body as a human shield.

“He took a bullet for me,” she said. “I owe him my life because he threw himself in front of me when the shooting started. He was covered in blood from the shots, but he just told me to run away.”

Another British holidaymaker, who has not been named, said he was sitting by the pool while his wife went to the bar to get a drink when he heard what sounded like fireworks.

Tourists are being flown home from Tunisia today (AFP/Getty Images)

Speaking from the scene, he said: “Then I heard the screams and realised that it was an attack and I just turned around, left my bag and ran up here. There was glass everywhere and pandemonium. As I got to here, I couldn’t find my wife so I was screaming, ’Jen, Jen where are you?’

“I was so lucky – I saw her in the corner of the room. She was shocked and didn’t understand what was going on, so I grabbed hold of her arm and dragged her past the reception desk and into an office around the back with a couple of other people.”

He said an office worker who was among the group locked the door behind them and they hid there for almost an hour.

Tourists comfort each other after the mass shooting in the resort town of Sousse (AFP)

Conor Fulford, from Tamworth, Staffordshire, has been trying to locate his mother Sue Davey on social media, who was staying at one of the hotels hit by the attack.

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "We've watched the news and my two sisters are adamant that they could see my mum on a stretcher. It looked like she had been shot in the leg which is obviously very disturbing.

"But she was moving so I guess it was a positive compared to the stories that we're hearing at the minute."

The gunman, who was cornered and shot dead by police, has been identified as a young student who was not previously known to Tunisia’s security services.

Travel operators Thomson and Thomas Cook have sent planes to repatriate 2,500 tourists to the UK today. The SITE Intel Group, which monitors the activities of jihadists, said Isis took responsibility for the attack on social media and named the attacker as Abu Yahya al-Qayrawani.

Anyone concerned about family or friends in Tunisia can contact the Foreign Office helpline on 020 7008 0000.

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