Tunisia terror attack: 19 dead after gunmen storm museum

Jihadism watcher Charlie Winter, from Quilliam, tweets that an Isis supporter is claiming there will be more attacks in Tunisa

The French foreign minister Laurent Fabius has said Tunisia was targeted because it represents hope.

Stephanie Kirchgaessner, for the Guardian in Rome, reports that despite the Tunisian prime minister saying Italians were among those killed at the Baro museum, the Italian government has said that it cannot confirm any fatalities.

The prime minister says two gunmen were killed and they could have been helped by two or three others. An operation is still underway to find the accomplices, he said.

The Tunisian prime minister, Habib Essid, says the attack targeted its economy.

He says the struggle against terrorism is a “long battle to fight”. It is an epidemic that threatens the security and stability of the country.

Essid praises the armed forces. All political parties, civil society and state institutions must come together to fight terrorism, he says.

It is a defining moment for Tunisia, says Essid.

Many are taking opportunities to undermine our homeland. We will act relentlessly, without mercy.

He dubs the terrorists a “heinous” tribe.

The Tunisian prime minister, Habib Essid, says 19 people were killed, including 17 tourists from Italy, Germany, Poland and Spain.

Another 22 tourists were injured and another two Tunisian men.

Chris Stephen, outside the Bardo museum, sends this account of the end of the siege:

A single muffled detonation signalled the end of the Bardo Museum siege in Tunis, with reports filtering through crowds gathered outside the gates in the bright sunshine that the attackers were dead.

White ambulances with lights flashing drove in a slow convoy inside the gardens of the palace grounds. Minutes later police pushed open the big iron entrance gates and black armoured vehicles of the special forces, their task seemingly complete, came out, inching through the crowds pressing in outside. The spectators burst into cheering and applause and a black-clad helmeted soldier peering from the turret of one vehicle punched the air with both fists in response.

Relief that the siege was over was mixed with dismay among those watching. “This is a black day for Tunisia,” said Karim Ben Sa’a, a manager in the tourism industry. “We are very sad for these tourists. They visit our country and it is so, so, sad to see them die. Our hearts are black.”

Elsewhere in Tunis there was shock and dismay that terrorists had managed to launch an attack at the very heart of the capital, at a museum that shares the Bardo palace complex with the national parliament. Police set up checkpoints and a policeman with a machine gun was posted outside the office of the British Council.

The Wall Street Journal’s Tamer El-Ghobashy, quoting security sources reports that 38 people were injured in all and nine killed (not including the two gunmen). It says one of the victims was a cleaner working at the museum.