Tunisia minister hunts tourist police reinforcements: 'Where are they? Are they having a coffee?'
Tunisia security reinforcements late to deploy in some areas as eight people arrested in connection with Sousse attack
Theresa May lays a floral tribute at the The Hotel Imperial Marhaba in Sousse Photo: Warren Allott/The Telegraph
By Hassan Morajea, Tunisia and Richard Spencer, Middle East Editor
8:35PM BST 02 Jul 2015
Hundreds of extra police sent by Tunisian law enforcement agencies to protect tourist beaches failed to show up, leading to embarrassing exchanges when the interior minister made a tour of inspection.
"We had agreed to protect the beaches. Where are the agents tasked with security on the beaches?" the minister, Najem Gharsalli, was heard saying to a security official during an inspection of Hammamet, Tunisia’s best-known resort.
"Where are they? Are they having a coffee?"
The conversation, caught by a radio broadcast, highlighted concerns about the standard of security at Tunisia’s beach hotels.
It took more than 45 minutes to stop Seifeddine Rezgui, the attacker who killed 38 people at El-Kantaoui resort last Friday, despite prior warnings by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) of attacks on foreign tourists on their summer holidays.
The government had promised increased security - but only from July 1.
The security that was there appears to have panicked, with reports of police failing to respond. According to one local newspaper, As-Sabah, two guards in a Zodiac boat off-shore decided “not to intervene”.
One ended up “falling in the water”. Other guards refused to take on the attacker for fear of being shot, it said.
In response to the attack, a crisis committee ordered an extra 1,377 armed police to guard tourist attractions including museums and beaches.
However, there was still a distinct lack of security when Mr Gharsalli visited.
By Thursday afternoon, hotels were reporting a better police presence. “They have added one policeman to guard the entrances of the hotels, and have groups of policemen patrolling the beaches,” said a member of staff at the Marina Palace Hotel in Hammamet.
“This is on top of some of the hotels privately hiring extra unarmed security personnel.”
A spokesman for the El-Mouradi Palm Marina Hotel in El-Kantaoui, next door to the Imperial Marhaba which was the target of last week’s attack, said: “Before, the police were only in town. This is the first time police have been placed at and in hotels.
“As for the streets of town, they all seem the same and we don't see much difference. The security presence is at the hotels themselves."
The full extent of the British losses was confirmed when the authorities identified the 30th and last British victim.
There were also three Irish tourists killed, two Germans, a Belgian, a Portuguese and a Russian.
All 30 Britons were on package tours booked by Thomson Holidays and its First Choice brand.
“The whole company would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of those involved in this tragic event,” a spokesman said.
“Our main focus now is to ensure the families of the deceased and our customers who have been injured receive all possible support at this incredibly difficult time.
“Everyone at Thomson and First Choice is absolutely devastated by the tragic loss of life and terrible pain that this incident has caused.”
The Tunisian authorities also confirmed on Thursday that they had eight people - seven men and a woman - in custody on suspicion of being directly involved in the attack.
Kamel Jendoubi, the minister heading the crisis committee, gave no details but said inquiries had “allowed us to discover the network behind the operation in Sousse".
The authorities have maintained that Rezgui was not acting alone, but had been to a training camp believed to be run by Isil in neighbouring Libya also attended by the attackers who killed 21 people at the Bardo Museum in the capital Tunis in March.
People flee the gunman at Tunisia's Bardo Museum in March (AFP/Getty)
