Hundreds of armed policemen patrol streets of Tunisian towns to protect hotels, tourists
SOUSSE: Hundreds of armed police patrolled the streets of Tunisia’s beach resorts on Sunday and the government said it will deploy hundreds more inside hotels after the militant attack in Sousse that killed 39 foreigners.
Thousands of tourists have left Tunisia since Friday’s attack, which has shocked the North African country that relies heavily on tourism for jobs and foreign currency revenues. “We are going to deploy 1,000 armed police to protect hotels and tourists,” Tunisian Interior Minister Najem Gharsalli told reporters late on Saturday night.
The tourism minister has described the Sousse attack as a catastrophe for the industry, which accounts for about seven percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
“Germans, French and British officials informed us they would not prevent tourists from coming to Tunisia, but they want to participate in the investigation and to see clear security decisions,” tourism minister, Salma Loumi, told reporters on Sunday.
“We will receive all ambassadors on Tuesday to inform them of all security measures taken to protect tourists,” she said.
Loumi noted that many British tourists had decided to stay in Tunisia until the end of their holidays.
More than 3,000 tourists had already left the country a day after the attack.
“Tunisia is a beautiful country, and we will come back, but right now we need to leave, we need to forget what happened,” said Lucy, a young British tourist leaving from a local airport near Sousse. “It’s clear it is not safe here at the moment.”