UK was worried over security at death beach

THE British government raised concerns about the safety of holidaymakers at a Tunisian beach resort months before 30 British tourists were massacred there, an inquest heard yesterday.

A Foreign Office expert warned there was ‘little in the way of effective security’ to prevent or respond to an attack at Sousse.

The official’s ‘recce’ of hotels in the resort in January 2015 also questioned the security at beach entrances, the inquests into the deaths of the British victims heard.

In March that year, 20 tourists died in a terror attack in Tunis. But while the Government’s travel advice website said there was a ‘high risk of terrorism’ in Tunisia, it stopped short of telling tourists not to visit.

On June 26, Islamic State terrorist Seifeddine Rezgui, 23, shot dead 38 holidaymakers, including 30 Britons, on the sands at Sousse and in the five-star Riu Imperial Marhaba, which he entered through its beach gates.

Andrew Ritchie QC, representing 20 victims’ families at the hearing in London, criticised the Foreign Office for not telling travellers that terrorists were targeting tourists in Tunisia, and instead saying ‘attacks could be indiscriminate’. He also criticised staff at travel firm TUI, who allegedly told concerned tourists that Tunisia was ‘100 per cent safe’ after the Tunis attack.

The inquests continue.