15:07 27/06/2015
London - British tour operators Thomson and First Choice sent 10
planes to evacuate tourists from Tunisia on Saturday after 39 people
including at least five Britons were killed in the resort of Sousse in
an attack claimed by Islamic State.
The British government said it
expected the number of British casualties to rise after the attack on
Friday at the Imperial Marhaba hotel in Sousse, 140km south of the
capital Tunis. Other casualties included German and Belgian tourists.
"I
expect it [the number of British casualties] to increase," British
Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, told the BBC. "Most of the people
were British and there were a large number of British caught up in the
shooting."
A gunman disguised
as a tourist opened fire on tourists as they lounged on the beach at
the hotel, with a rifle he had hidden in an umbrella.
Terror attack
Thomson
and First Choice said several of the people killed and injured were
their customers and that they were working closely with the local
authorities to confirm the exact details of casualties.
The tour
operators said 10 Thomson Airways flights had gone to Tunisia to
repatriate all of the companies' customers from Port El Kantaoui and
Sousse, a total of approximately 2 500 people.
British Prime
Minister David Cameron was due to chair a meeting of senior ministers on
Saturday to discuss the response to the attack in Tunisia.
"I'll
be chairing a COBRA meeting of senior ministers and officials shortly
to continue discussing our response to the Tunisia terror attack,"
Cameron said on his Twitter account, referring to a meeting room where
high-level security meetings take place.
The Foreign Office
confirmed late on Friday that five Britons were among the dead but the
British death toll was expected to rise. Tunisia is a popular holiday
destination for British tourists.
The tour operators said they
would be cancelling all Thomson and First Choice holidays to Tunisia for
the next week, and that amendments could be made to bookings on
holidays to Tunisia until July 24 with extra flights to Cape Verde,
Rhodes and Gran Canaria offered as alternatives.
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