21 killed in Tunisia attack

Tunisia: Tunisia’s prime minister says 21 people are dead after an attack on a major museum, including 17 foreign tourists, and that two or three of the attackers remain at large.

He said that two of the attackers were killed in a gunfight with police oN Wednesday, and that security forces are hunting for two or three others believed to have been involved.

“A terrorist attack targeted the Bardo Museum,” ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui told reporters, adding that the assault was by “two or more terrorists armed with Kalashnikovs”.

Kalashnikov-wielding gunmen killed at least 17 foreign tourists in the brazen attack, police said.

Polish, Italian, German and Spanish tourists were among the dead, Prime Minister Habib Essid said, adding that two gunmen had been killed.

A Tunisian national and a policeman were also reported dead. Essid said the gunmen, dressed in military uniforms, opened fire on the tourists as they were disembarking from a bus and chased them inside the museum.

Health Minister Said Aidi said 38 had been wounded. The attack appeared to be the worst on foreigners in Tunisia since an Al-Qaeda suicide bombing on a synagogue killed 14 Germans, two French and five Tunisians on the island of Djerba in 2002.