Tourists recount Tunisia horror

(MENAFN- Arab News) SOUSSE Tunisia: In the final moments of Tunisia's worst terror attack in history witnesses recalled the assailant casually strolled to the ocean at a popular resort to wash his hands and face.

Moments earlier they said the man later identified by authorities as Seifeddine Rezgui had been methodically stalking mostly European tourists with an assault rifle and grenades. In a half-hour rampage Friday that shocked the world for its brutality Rezgui killed 39 people and wounded dozens as they sunbathed on a pristine beach in Sousse.
But as he finished cleansing himself Rezgui turned toward a group of nearby Tunisian hotel staff who were frantically dragging wounded beachgoers away from the violence.
'He fired his Kalashnikov into the air and yelled 'Run! Get away! I'm not here to kill you!'' said Ibrahim Ghrib 23 a lifeguard who witnessed the encounter.
To Ghrib the message was clear. The Western tourists who used to pack this tiny Mediterranean country's placid beach resorts are no longer welcome at least not by the extremists who seem to hold increasing sway here.
During the Friday attack which started just before noon witnesses described scenes of chaos and carnage.
Ghrib the lifeguard said that he was on duty at the nearby Palm Marina hotel beach when he first saw Rezgui walking along the water several meters away holding a red umbrella and wearing a black shirt and black swim shorts. He said that Rezgui then dropped the umbrella used to conceal an assault rifle and began opening fire on dozens of people lounging on beach chairs.
'I immediately started shouting at people on the beach to run to the hotel' Ghrib recalled.
Waves of vacationers began running for safety many of them covered in blood as they streamed into the patio restaurant of the nearby Palm Marina hotel. The hordes of screaming people startled Mandy Morris 52 a Briton who initially mistook the cackle of gunfire for fireworks.
Shortly before incident she said she noticed a small boat racing to shore and away from the other recreation boats in the water. A few moments later she began hearing automatic-weapons fire she said.
'I'm still suspicious of who was on that boat. It just came straight to shore' said Morris who fled for cover with her husband in the Palm Marina.
Alexander Nicolai 48 recalled seeing the same boat drop two people on the beach next to him. The shooting started as the men jumped off the boat which he described as a rubber dingy. But he said he could not determine whether the men on the craft were actual assailants.
It is still unclear whether Rezgui had accomplices in the attack.
Diane Darlington 21 said she and a friend thought they heard gunfire from three different locations near the site of the attack. They ran for cover in their fourth-floor room at the Palm Marina where they watched events at the beach.
'We're certain there were three of them' said Darlington a Briton from York.
Shams Eddine Bowmaffeh who works at the Palm Marina pool area remembered seeing only one assailant Rezgui. After helping tourists take cover in the hotel Bowmaffeh 20 recalled running toward the Imperial Marhaba beach to check on wounded tourists.
By then he said Rezgui had left the beach and entered the Imperial Marhaba attacking the hotel pool area with at least one grenade. Rezgui then entered the reception at the Imperial Marhaba opening fire with the assault rifle which was reloaded multiple times during the rampage witnesses said.
About 30 minutes into the incident Bowmaffeh said Rezgui walked back to the beach area of the Imperial Marhaba. At that moment Bowmaffeh was helping lifeguard Ghrib and about a dozen other hotel staff pull wounded tourists off the beach.
They all paused in disbelief as the killer washed his body before firing his weapon into the air and warning them to leave Bowmaffeh said. Then Rezgui walked northwards along the beach somewhere afterward meeting his fate with Tunisian police.
'He washed himself calmly like he hadn't just killed dozens of innocent people' said Bowmaffeh. 'It was pure evil.'