Tourists flee from Tunisia
After an attack at a resort that killed 38, hotels have emptied and the airport is busy with departures.
TUNIS, Tunisia - Thousands of tourists fled from Tunisia on Saturday after the country's worst terrorist attack in a resort area killed 38 people, while the government struggles to prevent future jihadi attacks against the all-important tourism sector.
New measures to increase the numbers of troops on the streets and crack down on organizations with radical links, however, won't bring the tourists back in the short-term, further threatening the fragile economy.
When a 24-year-old graduate student at Kairouan University strolled onto the Sousse beach and pulled out a Kalashnikov assault rifle and grenades hidden inside his beach umbrella, he was sounding the death knell for Tunisia's tourist season.
Tunisian authorities identified the attacker as Seifeddine Rezgui, saying he killed 38 people, 15 of them British, as well as German, Irish, Belgian, and Portuguese victims, and sent thousands of tourists fleeing to airports. The wounded included 24 Britons, seven Tunisians, three Belgians, and a German, Russian, and Ukrainian.
"It's the first time I've ever been on holiday and feared for my life," said British tourist Matthew Preece, adding it was his third time visiting Tunisia and likely his last. "So obviously you can't come back somewhere it's not safe."
Tourists and employees are returning home with tales of horror - cowering in rooms or offices as the killer stalked through the hotel.
European countries and tour operators sent planes to evacuate their citizens. By midday Saturday, nine flights had whisked away 1,400 people, according to Mohammed Walid Ben Ghachem, manager of the Enfidha-Hammamet Airport near Sousse.
At the Imperial Marhaba Hotel, the guests had left, according to manager Mohammed Becheur. "We may have zero clients today, but we will keep our staff," he said.
On the beach, there were still a few tourists from neighboring hotels. Some laid flowers at the site of the attack while police patrollled the beach on horseback and security boats patrolled the waters.
Prime Minister Habib Essid announced a raft of new security measures; many have questioned why they weren't implemented after the attack against tourists in March at the National Bardo Museum killed 22.
The beach attack was claimed by the radical Islamic State group, which thousands of Tunisians have joined. It came the same day that a suicide bomber killed 27 people in a Shiite mosque in Kuwait and a man in France ran his truck into a warehouse and hung his employer's severed head on the gate. The attack in Kuwait was also claimed by the Islamic State and on Saturday thousands of people took part in a mass funeral procession.