Tunisia attack: British man used body as human shield to protect fiancee
Briton shot three times in back and suffers heart attack after using his body to protect his fiancee when Tunisia gunman attacked beach
A British man shot three times on the beach used his body as a human shield to protect his fiancee from being killed by the gunman.
Gas engineer Matthew James, 30, was hit in the shoulder, chest and hip as the gunman opened fire on the sunbeds as he lay next to fiancee Sarah Wilson.
Speaking from the hospital in Tunisia, Sarah, 26, said: “He took a bullet for me. I owe him my life because he threw himself in front of me when the shooting started.
“He was covered in blood from the shots but he just told me to run away.
“He told me: “I love you babe. But just go – tell our children that their daddy loves them.”
“It was the bravest thing I’ve ever known. But I just had to leave him under the sunbed because the shooting just kept on coming.
“I ran back, past bodies on the beach to reach our hotel. It was chaos – there was a body in the hotel pool and it was just full of blood.
“You just can’t explain how terrible it was. It was chaos with screaming and gunshots. I’m just so glad Matthew is alive because so many other people are dead.”
Engaged couple Sarah and Matthew, from Pontypridd, South Wales, left their two children Tegan, six, and Kaden, 14 months at home with their family when they jetted out to Sousse on June 21 for a two week break.
An image thought to show the Tunisia gunman
Beautician Sarah told how they headed to the beach as normal in the morning – with no idea of the horror due to unfold.
She said: “We were just on the sunbeds, messing around and having a nice time when we heard these sounds.
“The shooting had started and there was a man with a gun opening fire all around. It is hard to remember just exactly what was going on.
“I only saw the one man in dark clothing but people were being shot.
“Matthew put himself in front of me then he was hit, he moved and the man shot him again. Again he tried to move and he was shot again.
“He was shouting and blood was pouring out all over. I was screaming and it was chaos as more shots were coming out.
“We were down on the floor next to the sunbeds to shelter but the shots just kept on coming. He just told me to go, to look after our kids and that he loved me.
“I had to go and made it back to the hotel.
“I hid in a towel cupboard to make sure I was safe. It was dark and I could hear people walking around – it was terrifying. But eventually it became quieter and I came out.
“I was desperate to find out what had happened to Matthew but no-one was around to help. It was so badly organised with no-one to help and hardly anyone speaking English.
Welsh holiday maker Matthew James who is in intensive care after being shot 3 times in the Tunisian beach massacre which left 27 dead
“I didn’t know if he was dead or alive. I was even looking under white sheets to see if it was his body.
“I kept on speaking to people and after about two hours somebody handed me a phone to say: ‘I have a very grumpy man on the phone who won’t do anything until he has spoken to you.’
“It was Matthew and that was the first time I knew he was alive. He just told me he loved me and that he has had an operation to save his life.
“I’ve been to the hospital intensive care and I’m just staying here on a chair now. His pelvis was shattered by the bullet and he also had a heart attac
“But he is alive. I’m just praying we can get out of here as soon as we can. We think it will be OK but it is difficult because not many people speak English.
“No-one knows what was going on. We have had to draw pictures to try to find out.
Holiday makers Matthew James and his fiancee Sarah Wilson
“We just want to get home. I know just how lucky we are to be alive because I can see all the bodies of the people who are not.
“There are bodies everywhere, some covered in blankets and some not. You can’t imagine how bad it is.
“We are due to get married in the summer of 2017. We will be the luckiest people alive because we have witnessed what no-one ever should see. Ever.”
North East families have told of their ordeal after a terrorist killed at least 37 people – including five Britons – in Tunisia.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has warned that the death toll could rise and said a “high proportion” of the casualties were expected to be British “because of the nature of the resort” of Sousse.
Rafik Chelli, one of Tunisia’s leading security officials, said the attacker, from the city of Kairouan, came from the beach hiding his Kalashnikov under an umbrella before opening fire on tourists. From there he entered the Imperial Marhaba hotel through the pool area, shooting people as he went.
Wallsend teenager Abbie Douglas, 19, was in the hotel next door and spoke to The Chronicle of her horror at the events.
“We were sunbathing when we heard a bang but we just thought someone had dropped something heavy,” said Abbie, a Sainsbury’s supermarket worker in Heaton, Newcastle,who was on her first foreign holiday without her parents, with 22-year-old boyfriend Sam Younganan.
“There were a few more bangs but we didn’t know what was going on. Someone said there was a shooting and everyone ran inside.”
The pair were sunbathing beside the pool at the Soviva Resort, opposite the under fire Hotel Riu Imperial Marhaba in the Port El Kantaoui neighbourhood, when they heard the gunfire.
Wearing just a bikini, Abbie and Sam took refuge in the hotel and, along with a group of fellow tourists, blockaded themselves in.
“People have been struggling to get hold of their families,” she added. “I spoke to my brother and my mam so they know I’m safe.”
Speaking in the aftermath of the attack Abbie was still shaking but said things were beginning to regain some sense of normality in the hotel though no one could enter or leave the resort.
She added: “I can’t eat, I can’t drink – we’re in a neighbouring block and I don’t want to walk back to ours.
“We were supposed to be coming back on Wednesday but we want to come home tonight, but we’re waiting to hear what’s happening.
“Jet2 have held a meeting, the army have blockaded the area and no one can get in or out so we’ve been told it’s low-risk anything else will happen.
“I’m more nervous about the trip back to the airport – it’s about an hour-and-a-half drive.
“I never expected this, it’s like something out of a film, it’s just horrible.”
The worst such attack in Tunisia’s history came on the same day a man was found decapitated after an attack by suspected Islamic extremists on a French factory and a Shiite mosque in Kuwait was bombed killing at least 25 people.
Although the attacks do not appear to be directly linked they come after the so-called Islamic State called for their followers “to make Ramadan a month of calamities for the nonbelievers”.
Tunisia’s Health Ministry confirmed that those killed included Britons, Tunisians, Germans and Belgians. Thirty six others have been wounded.
Those killed are most likely to be foreign as the local Muslim population is less likely to go to the beach during the holy month of Ramadan.
Eyewitness Gary Pine told Sky News: “My 22-year-old son had just gone back into the sea after a game of volleyball and then over to my left, about 100 yards away, we saw what we thought was firecrackers going off so we thought someone was celebrating.
“But you could see then quite quickly the panic that was starting to ensue from the next resort along from us, which is about 100 yards away, and so then people started exiting the beach pretty quickly, but only when you can start hearing bullets around your ears did you start to realise it was something more serious than firecrackers.”
Tension has been high in Tunisia since an attack on the National Bardo Museum in March which killed 22 people, mostly foreign tourists including a Briton.
A suicide bomber blew himself up in a failed attack on the beach in Sousse in October 2013, while 21 people lost their lives in an attack in the country earlier this year.
The country has undergone unprecedented social and political change since the 2011 uprisings and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office says there is a “high” threat from terrorism.
Sousse is a city on the east coast of Tunisia, about 87 miles (140km) south of the capital, Tunis. Around 1.2 million tourists visit Sousse every year, drawn by the hotels, sandy beaches and culture.
Holiday firms with customers in the resort, including Thomas Cook, Thomson, First Choice and Sunway, all said they were trying to find out more about what had happened and support customers.
A NORTH Yorkshire woman has told how she fled the scene of the Tunisian beach terror attack which left at least 37 people dead – some from Britain.
Speaking to ITV Tyne Tees from the resort of Sousse, Ellie Makin, from Ripon, said: “I was on a sunbed on the beach when I happened to look right. All I saw was a gun and an umbrella being dropped and then he started firing to the right hand side of us.
“If he’d fired to the left, I don’t know what would have happened.
Ellie, pictured right, and her friend Debbie Horsfall fled the beach but back at the hotel the gunman appeared below them in the foyer and the shooting started again.
“We got split up at this point. I ran into someone’s room and hid,” said Ellie.
“I think we’re quite lucky.”
The attackers rushed into the Imperial Marhaba hotel in the resort town of Sousse in the latest attack on the North African country’s key tourism industry. At least six other people were wounded.
The fatalities include also include Tunisians, Germans and Belgians, Tunisia’s Health Ministry said this afternoon.
Wielding Kalashnikovs, the gunmen entered from the beach, said ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Aroui.
Security forces responded, killing one of the attackers, while the hunt for the second is continuing, he said.
“A terrorist infiltrated the buildings from the back before opening fire on the residents of the hotel, including foreigners and Tunisians,” he told the state news agency.
During the holy month of Ramadan Tunisia’s Muslim population is less likely to go the beach, so those there would have been predominantly foreign tourists.
Local radio said most of the dead were German or British.
One gunman was said to have been killed and another was pursued in the resort, a popular holiday destination for Britons.
The outrage took place in the popular resort of Al-Qantawi in the city of Sousse, about 80 miles from the capital Tunis on the Mediterranean coast.
Former soldier Steve Walls, from Malton, in North Yorkshire, was staying with his wife Jacqui in the resort and helped gunshot victims on the beach, Mr Walls said he fled when he saw the gunmen advancing on his position.
Mr Walls, 60, then faced an agonising two-hour wait for news of his wife Jacqui, who had been sheltering in a nearby hotel.
The couple were halfway through a two-week holiday, staying at the Riu Belleview Park hotel, when the attackers struck.
Mr Walls heard shots and ran towards the beach in search of his wife, as crowds ran away.
“I didn’t think of my own safety, I knew there would be people injured,” he said.
“I was trying to find Jacqui and trying to comfort people who were injured. I put a tourniquet on a woman’s shoulder, and helped a man with a gunshot wound to his stomach.”
Jennifer Brown, who works for The Northern Echo and is from Darlington, was staying in the neighbouring resort of Monastir, about 15 minutes walk away.
She said: “Within minutes people started getting phone calls from worried relatives back home.
“The beach just emptied. Now it’s like a ghost town out there – we can see armed police patrolling the beach from our hotel balcony.”
Thomas Cook, which has holidaymakers in the resort, said: “We are currently gathering information and will provide an update as soon as possible. Our teams on the ground are offering every support to our customers and their families in the area.”
The Northern Echo:
ATTACK: Injured people are treated on a Tunisian beach. Picture: Tunisia TV1
Meanwhile, in France an attacker with suspected ties to French Islamic radicals rammed a car into a gas factory, and the severed head of his boss was hung from a post at the entrance, officials said.
Two more people were injured in the attack in in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, south-east of Lyon, authorities said.
President Francois Hollande, speaking in Brussels, said the attack began when a car crashed through the gate of the factory and ploughed into gas canisters, touching off an explosion.
“No doubt about the intention – to cause an explosion,” he said, calling the attack “of a terrorist nature”.
Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said a man who had been flagged in 2006 for suspected ties to extremists was seized by an alert firefighter, and was one of multiple people in custody after the attack.
A security official said the victim was the head of a local transportation company who is believed to have been killed before the explosion. His name was not released.
Authorities said his body was found near the site of the attack.
Mr Cazeneuve said: “People who could have participated in this abject crime are in custody.”
He added that the suspect was known to intelligence services who had him under surveillance from 2006 to 2008. The man is from the Lyon region, he said.
The Northern Echo:
One of the injured is carries from the beach on a sun lounger
The head was found staked on a gate at the factory’s entrance, in what appeared to be an echo of the Islamic State group’s practice of beheading prisoners and displaying their heads for all to see.
An official said two flags – one white and one black, both with Arabic inscriptions – were found nearby.
The industrial site belongs to Air Products, a US chemical company based in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
France went on high alert after attacks in January against the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a kosher grocery store and a policewoman that left 20 people dead in the Paris region, including three Islamic extremist attackers.
Since then, fears of copycat attacks have risen. One person was arrested after authorities said he was plotting to target churches in the Paris region. Mr Cazeneuve said security has been heightened at religious sites around the country.
Meanwhile, Tunisia has been plagued by terror attacks since overthrowing its secular dictator in 2011, although they have only recently targeted the vital tourism sector.
In March, two gunmen attacked the national museum in Tunis killing at least 22 people, all but one of them tourists. A group pledging allegiance to the radical Islamic State group claimed that attack and promised more in Tunisia.
Tourism is a major part of the Tunisian economy, especially in coastal resorts like Sousse and it suffered in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution.
