This beach was once full of laughter, now it’s a desolate wasteland

ON a lovely June day under clear blue skies, a holiday beach lies eerily deserted in front of an empty hotel.

No one comes here now. Not after what happened here a year ago today. Then these sands were awash with blood as 30 British tourists were among 38 victims wiped out by an Islamic State gunman.

Seifeddine Rezgui’s 25- minute killing spree outside t he l uxury Imperial Marhaba hotel in the Tunisian resort of Sousse has all but destroyed this land’s once thriving tourism trade.

The hotel is closed. The parasols and sun loungers that were scattered with bodies that day are no longer in place. Entrances to the beach are padlocked. The resort beyond is a ghost town.

A year on, the terror threat in Sousse remains high, with the Foreign Office advising against all but essential travel to Tunisia. Yet victims’ families have urged people to forgive – and praised the bravery of local beach workers who risked their lives to save holidaymakers. They formed a human chain across the beach to stop graduate Rezgui, 23, killing other tourists.

Cheryl Stollery lost her husband, social worker John, 58, in the massacre. She said: “Precious lives were taken from us without any real understanding of why it happened, except through a mindless act of terrorism.

“But we should not forget those who put themselves in danger to help others.”

Courage

Cheryl, of Nottingham, added: “Their courage and acts of selflessness give us hope that good can prevail through acts of kindness, outweighing political, religious and cultural barriers.”

Suzanne Richards, the mother of murdered teenager Joel, 19, of Wednesbury in the Midlands, is hoping the massacre inquests – delayed until next year – can shed light on what happened.

Her family also lost Joel’s uncle Adrian Evans, 44, and grandad Patrick, 78, that day. Joel’s brother Owen, 16, survived.

Suzanne said: “We will never come to terms with it. We just hope the inquest