FAMILIES

THE husband of a woman shot dead in a Tunisian beach massacre has recalled the horror of hearing the gunfire from his hotel room.

Declan Carty went looking for his wife after a terrorist went on a murder spree that claimed 38 lives.

Three Irish people were killed in the attack – Mr Carty’s wife Lorna and Laurence and Martina Hayes.

An inquest heard harrowing evidence yesterday from tourists staying at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel at Port El Kantaoui in Sousse where the attack took place shortly after noon on June 26, 2015.

Mr Carty told Dublin Coroner’s Court: “I went to the beach, I lifted a towel, it was Lorna.

“She was lying with her head to one side as if she was lying in the sun.”

Mr Carty and his 54-year-old wife had moved there from another hotel due to construction work.

He added: “There was banging and clattering. Lorna explained that I’d had a heart attack and I was on holiday to rest.”

The couple, from Balbradagh, Robinstown, Co Meath, were “delighted” with the new hotel.

Mr Carty said: “It was a fine hotel, quiet. We were enjoying our holiday. We met another Irish couple, the Hayes.”

On the morning of the attack, Mr Carty was in the hotel room and his wife was at the beach.

The couple’s bags were packed as they were due to leave that day.

Mr Carty added: “I woke up to what I first thought was fireworks.

“It sounded like a machine gun.

“I looked out but everything looked normal, there was a jet-ski and a paraglider moving in the water.”

However, when Mr Carty saw people running and screaming along the beach he tried to phone his wife but got no answer.

He ran to the lift where he said he met a staff member “in a panic”.

He added: “She turned white. She was pointing at the key in my hand, she’d no English.

“There were other guests there and we ran to my room and stayed there for the duration.

“There was glass crashing, I could hear a bullet ricocheting. There was shooting and it went on for a while. I

DUBLIN CORONER’S COURT