DAY OF TERROR
Shot three times, hero Briton acted as human shield to save his fiancee
A BRITISH engineer who used himself as a human shield to save his fiancee was last night fighting for his life after being shot three times.
Matthew James, 30, threw himself in front of Saera Wilson, 26, as a gunman opened fire on sunbeds at a Tunisian resort.
The gas engineer was hit in the shoulder, chest and hip – but the bullets are believed to have missed his vital organs. He was last night being treated at a local hospital.
Beautician Miss Wilson, who became engaged to Mr James in December, said: ‘He took a bullet for me. I owe him my life because he threw himself in front of me when the shooting started. He was covered in blood from the shots but he just told me to run away. He told me, “I love you, babe. But just go – tell our children that their daddy loves them”.’
Miss Wilson was one of many British survivors to give harrowing accounts of the massacre at El Kantaoui near Sousse, where a fanatic targeted tourists on the beach before turning to a hotel.
It was claimed one teenage boy saw his parents and grandmother shot dead. A clinic in Sousse named him as 16-year-old Richard Owen, but said he was still being treated for bullet wounds.
Reports suggested at least five Britons were among the dead, and there were 11 British victims being treated in the private clinic in Sousse alone.
Miss Wilson said of her fiance: ‘It was the bravest thing I’ve ever known. But I just had to leave him under the sunbed because the shooting just kept on coming. I ran back, past bodies on the beach to reach our hotel. It was chaos – there was a body in the hotel pool and it was just full of blood.
‘You just can’t explain how terrible it was. It was chaos with screaming and gunshots. I’m just so glad Matthew is alive … so many other people are dead.’
The couple, from Pontypridd, South Wales, were on their first break alone together having left their 14-month-old son Kaden, and Saera’s older daughter Tegan, six, at home with relatives.
Miss Wilson added: ‘We were just on the sunbeds, messing around and having a nice time when we heard these sounds,’ she said.
‘The shooting had started and there was a man with a gun opening fire all around… Matthew put himself in front of me then he was hit … He was shouting and blood was pouring out all over. I was screaming … more shots were coming out. We were down on the floor next to the sunbeds to shelter but the shots just kept on coming.
‘He just told me to go, to look after our kids and that he loved me.’
Miss Wilson hid in a hotel towel cupboard before venturing out when it became quiet.
‘I was desperate to find out what had happened to Matthew but no one was around to help,’ she said.
‘It was so badly organised with no one to help and hardly anyone speaking English. I didn’t know if he was dead or alive. I was even looking under white sheets to see if it was his body … after about two hours somebody handed me a phone to say, “I have a very grumpy man on the phone who won’t do anything until he has spoken to you”.’
‘It was Matthew and that was the first time I knew he was alive. He just told me he loved me … he has had an operation to save his life.’
She added: ‘ His pelvis was shattered by the bullet and he also had a heart attack. But he is alive.
‘I’m just praying we can get out of here as soon as we can. We think it will be OK but it is difficult because not many people speak English … We have had to draw pictures to try to find out. We just want to get home.’
Mr James’s father Mark, 54, faced an agonising wait for information before Miss Wilson rang from the hospital. He said not knowing was ‘the worst three hours of my life’.
He added: ‘When Saera rang, she was hysterical. She said, “I have a present for you” and handed the phone to Matthew.’
Steve Johnson, another Briton staying at the 366-room Imperial Marhaba Hotel, said: ‘We were just lying on the beach as usual … and we heard what at first we thought was fireworks but … it was firearms being discharged, and people [were] screaming and starting to run from along the beach towards us.
‘Me and my friend said, “That’s guns, let’s go” and we shouted to everybody around us who joined the sort of mass rush from the beach.
‘Once in the hotel we tried to organise people to get themselves concealed away from windows and got the staff to lock up … we stayed there until we started to see armed police officers on the site and waited until we were told it was safe to come out.’ Gary Pine, 47, from Bristol, was on the beach with his wife Nicola, 48, and 22-year-old son Ben when the gunfire began.
He said there were several hundred people sunbathing, adding: ‘It became apparent very quickly that it was something more than firecrackers when you could hear bullets whizzing around.
‘My son was in the sea at the time and myself and my wife were shouting at him to get out and as he ran up the beach he said he had just seen someone get shot.’
According to the Sousse clinic,
60- year- old James McGuire was among the British casualties, dying from his wounds.
An Irishwoman shot dead had travelled there with her husband to help him recuperate from heart surgery.
Lorna Carty, a nurse in her 50s, from Robinstown, County Meath, was out for a walk while her husband Declan, a farmer, rested in the hotel.
The couple were given the week-long holiday by their brother-in-law following Mr Carty’s surgery. They had been due to fly home last night.
A family friend said: ‘Lorna rushed her husband to hospital about a fort- night ago after he was getting pains in his heart. He had to get stents in. They went out to Tunisia to have a bit of a holiday after the operation.
‘Declan stayed in the hotel and Lorna went out to get a last bit of sun before leaving. When he heard all the commotion he went out, then he recognised the towel and the blood on it. He’s devastated.’
The couple’s son Simon travelled out to Tunisia last night to be with his father. Daughter Hazel, who was on an overseas holiday with schoolmates, was making her way home after being told about her mother’s death.