Just a week after the horrific shooting in Charleston, there has been a similar incident at two beach hotels in Tunisia.
According to reports this afternoon, at least 27 people are dead after two gunmen opened fire at the hotels, in the Tunisian coastal town of Sousse.
While identities of the victims have not yet been released, sources claim that the dead include six different nationalities.
One of the gunmen is believed to have been killed, while authorities are currently in pursuit of the other man.
A bystander, Elizabeth O’Brien, from Dublin, who was at one of the resorts with her two young sons at the time of the attack, has spoken about the horrific tragedy. She told Irish media that she grabbed her children and ran when she heard the sounds of gunfire.
We were in the pool when we heard automatic gun fire. People ran past saying there was an armed man on the beach
— John Yeoman (@johnyeo68) June 26, 2015
Hope it's enough pic.twitter.com/XaW4yTpplU
— John Yeoman (@johnyeo68) June 26, 2015
“We were on the beach, my sons were in the sea and I just got out of the sea. It was about 12 o’clock and I just looked up about 500 metres from me, and I saw a [hot air] balloon collapse down, then rapid firing,” she told RTÉ Radio.
She added: “Then I saw two people who were going to go up in the balloon start to run towards me…I thought, ‘Oh my God, it sounds like gunfire’, so I just ran to the sea to my children and grabbed our things, and as I was running towards the hotel, the waiters and security on the beach started saying, ‘run, run, run!’”
We will keep you updated on this tragic story as more details emerge.
Update: 26th June 2015 at 16:20
It has been confirmed that an Irish woman, believed to be from Co. Meath, is among the 28 who tragically died in today's shooting.
