At least 37 people were killed and dozens wounded when gunmen opened fire on a beach popular with tourists in Tunisia on Friday, officials said.
Tunisia’s Interior Ministry told NBC News that most of the victims were foreigners from “many” nationalities and that, in addition to the dead, at least 36 people were injured in the attack near the 5-star Imperial Marhaba hotel in Sousse.
One gunman had been killed and a second captured following a security-forces operation in the popular seaside resort, the ministry added.
Witnesses described seeing a gunman pull a gun from under a sun umbrella and opening fire on the beach-goers.
“I saw people running from the beach running, screaming…trying to reach the reception of the hotel, trying to find a place to escape,” Dhishallah Fredg, who manages the El Mouradi Palmarina Hotel, which is next door to the Imperial Marhaba, told NBC News. “You can’t imagine the fear people had in their eyes.”
The deadly assault came around the same time as an apparent terror attack on a factory in France and the bombing of a mosque in Kuwait. Authorities were trying to determine whether the attacks were coordinated.
French President Francois Hollande telephoned Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi to express solidarity in light of the Sousse attack, according to Hollande’s office.
FM #Steinmeier sharply condemns „cowardly attack“ on tourists in #Sousse. We stand side by side w/ #Tunisia in the fight against terrorism.
— GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) June 26, 2015At least five British nationals were among the dead, the U.K Foreign Office told NBC News. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said that because of the popularity of the area as a tourist destination, that number is likely to rise.
“We have to assume that a high proportion of those killed and injured will have been British,” Hammond said after chairing a meeting of the U.K. government’s crisis committee, COBRA.
Hammond added that his office is reviewing changes to its advice for British nationals traveling in the area.
An Irish woman believed to be in her 50s was among the dead, Ireland’s Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan told a press conference. A spokesman for Belgium’s foreign ministry told NBC News by text message that at least four Belgians had been wounded. The spokesman did not provide further details.
The nationalities of the other victims were not immediately clear, but Sousse — located around 90 miles from the capital of Tunis — is popular with European tourists.
The U.S. Embassy in the capital, Tunis, said that “as far as we know” there were no U.S. nationals among the victims.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemned the “cowardly assassination attack against tourists” but said he did not know if any of his countrymen were among the victims.
RIU Hotels & Resorts, which runs the Imperial Marhaba, confirmed in a statement that its hotel was involved in the attack and extended its “sincere condolences to the victims and their relatives.”
Gary Pine, a product manager from the U.K., told NBC News he was one of dozens of vacationers on the beach when the attack took place not far from his hotel, the El Mouradi Palm Marina.
He said he initially thought he was hearing firecrackers but that “it was only when you could hear the bullets whizzing through the air that we realized it was gunfire.” His 22-year-old son saw one person get shot, Pine added.
He said guests started running off the beach and were told to go to their rooms by hotel staff, he said. Some guests ran back out onto the beach to get their room keys, he added.
“The easiest way to describe it is utter panic,” Pine said. “People were fleeing in all different directions. They were trying to make their way as fast as they could back up to the hotel.”
British holidaymaker Karen Hillman said she was near her hotel’s pool when other guests started rushing toward the building “like a stampede.” “Everyone was told to get inside the hotel and into the rooms,” she added. The entertainment manager at the hotel, who only gave his first name, Hamouda, said guests had told him two gunmen “came from the sea” and attacked the beach. He confirmed that staff had told guests to hide in their rooms. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which occurred during the holy month of Ramadan. The violence had an almost immediate impact on the country’s tourism industry, which has been struggling in wake of a deadly terror attack in March which left several tourists dead. “Once again, cowardly and traitorous hands have struck Tunisia, targeting its security and that of its children and visitors,” President Beji Caid Essebsi told reporters at the RIU Imperial Marhaba hotel, according to The Associated Press. Essebsi promised “painful but necessary” security measures. “No country is safe from terrorism, and we need a global strategy of all democratic countries,” he said, the AP reported. Belgian airline Jetairfly said on Twitter that one of its Boeing 737s en route from Brussels had turned back “due to current terrorist attack.” The aircraft had been due to land in the Tunisian town of Enfidha, about 25 miles north of Sousse, before it turned around more than halfway into its journey. My thoughts are with all those caught up in today's appalling attacks. I will chair COBRA in London at 4pm. In March, an attack on Tunisia’s National Bardo Museum left 22 people — mainly foreigners — dead. ISIS purportedly claimed responsibility for the assault, in which Japanese, Polish, Italian and Spanish nationals were killed, before two of the assailants were died in a firefight with police. Related: Three Terror Attacks Follow ISIS Call for ‘Month of Disaster’ Tunisia has been held up as a rare example of democracy being successfully delivered after the Arab Spring of 2011. The country’s warm weather, beaches, historic culture and nightlife have made it a popular holiday destination for Europeans, with 7 million tourists arriving each year, according to Lonely Planet. This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com. This is a developing story. Please refresh for updates.
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