TUNISIA-SECURITY/HAMMOND British death toll in Tunisia attack rises to 30 - Foreign Secretary

Record ID: 148689

  • Title: TUNISIA-SECURITY/HAMMOND British death toll in Tunisia attack rises to 30 - Foreign Secretary
  • Date: 2nd July 2015
  • Summary: VIENNA, AUSTRIA (JULY 2, 2015) (REUTERS) BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY, PHILIP HAMMOND, GETTING OUT OF CAR (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY, PHILIP HAMMOND, SAYING: "What I can tell you is that we now have all 30 British victims positively identified, and we can say with a high degree of confidence that that is now the final death toll of British nationals kille
  • Embargoed: 17th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Austria
  • Country: Austria
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9AYEBZ9TRJR6IA8KCEQ29SS8Z
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The final number of Britons confirmed killed by an Islamist gunman in Tunisia last week reached 30 and all victims have been identified, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Thursday (July 2).
    "What I can tell you is that we now have all 30 British victims positively identified, and we can say with a high degree of confidence that that is now the final death toll of British nationals killed in this incident," Hammond told reporters upon arrival in Vienna for Iran nuclear talks.
    British authorities would repatriate bodies over the next few days, he said.
    "Another nine will return to the UK today. There will be two further repatriation flights tomorrow and Saturday," he said.
    Hammond confirmed that a minute's remembrance would be held at noon on Friday (July 3) to mark a week since the attack in the coastal town of Sousse.
    The minute's silence would be held "across the UK and across the British embassies and posts around the world."
    The massacre on Friday (June 26) left 38 foreign tourists dead.
    The British death toll has risen several times, from 22 to 27, and again then to 29 on Wednesday (July 1).
    The attack, claimed by Islamic State militants, was the worst such attack in Tunisia's modern history.
    Dressed like a tourist, the gunman, Saif Rezgui, targeted only foreigners in his rampage at the Imperial Marhaba hotel before he was shot dead by police.
    Tunisian authorities say the attacker was trained in Libya at a jihadist camp last year.
    Authorities say he was in Libya at the same time as the two gunmen who carried out the March attack on the Bardo museum in Tunis, where 21 people were killed including Japanese, Spanish and Italian tourists.
    Three other suspects have been arrested for helping to plan the attack.
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