Seifeddine Rezgui: Tunisia beach massacre gunman 'liked hip-hop and football'

'It was poverty that did it', claims neighbour of gunman

Seifeddine Rezgui was given the name of “Abu Yahya al-Qayrawani” by Isis, who have subsequently claimed responsibility for the attack (AP) (AP)

The gunman in the Tunisia attacks was a Real Madrid supporter and hip-hop fan, but became radicalised and posted extremist messages online before finally carrying out the attack that killed 38 people.

Seifeddine Rezgui, who was not on any terror watchlists, came from a town renowned as being the centre for ultra-conservative Salafists.

In the days following the attack in Souse his relatives have spoken of their shame and shock at the 23-year-old's actions.

Since the attack, videos of Rezgui break-dancing dressed in jeans and a hoodie have emerged, along with reports that he was well-known for entering dance competitions in Tunis, the Tunisian capital.

But in later Facebook postings he wrote of jihad and how he wanted to make people "suffer".

Rezgui appears to have shared an apartment with six other men close to the Mosque of the Seven Virgins in the impoverished El Zouhour neighbourhood.

Neighbours said the group led secretive lives and avoided contact with locals. They claimed the men were visited by a group of Salafists before the building was suddenly left empty.

Over the weekend video footage of the inside of the abandoned apartment, showing a dirty kitchen, a near-empty fridge and rubbish stashed under the sink.

Rezgui came from the town of Gaafour, 75 miles from Tunis, in the Siliana region. He was an aviation student at Kairouan University and had reportedly never been abroad.

His family and neighbours believe a new group of friends radicalised him.

"I don't know who has contacted him, influenced him or who has put these ideas in his head," said his father, Hakim Rezgui. "He has new friends who got him into this."

Ammar Fazai, a 64-year-old neighbour, was quoted in The Observer as saying: "I think maybe, just maybe, it was poverty that did it."

Rezgui's uncle, Ali Bin Muhammad Rezgui, described him as "just like the other young men" who liked to play football or go to a cafe after praying in the local mosque.

Since the attack on Friday the radical Islamist group Isis have taken credit for the massacre.

According to the SITE intelligence group, they used Rezgui's jihadi pseudonym of Abu Yahya al-Qayrawani.