Foreign Office defends Tunisia travel advice at Sousse attack inquest

The Foreign Office has defended its advice to tourists in Tunisia after being criticised for not warning British travellers of the terror risk before a gunman opened fire on a beach in Sousse.

Seifeddine Rezgui murdered 38 people in June 2015, 10 of them killed on the beach before he headed into the upmarket Riu Imperial Marhaba in search of more victims.

Thirty of those killed were British and their inquests are being held at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

The Sousse attack came just three months after an attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis, which resulted in the deaths of 20 tourists.

Despite that attack, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office did not consider the threat to be worse than the second-highest level. The advice at the time of the Souse attack was: "There's is a high risk of terrorism including kidnapping."

The wording on the FCO Travel Advice also said: "Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places visited by foreigners."

Jane Marriott, a director of the Foreign Office's Middle East North Africa Directorate at the time of the attacks on the Bardo Museum and in Sousse, told the hearing that because, prior to the 2010 revolution, Tunisia had been a dictatorship, there was "little public desire for a more intrusive police presence".

She added: "This made it difficult for the authorities to be proactive with security."

Ms Marriott admitted, however, that an increase in the number of British tourists to the country increased the risk of British tourists being targeted. It was because of this, she said, that efforts were made to review and increase security in the country.

She also said that on 19 March, the day after the Bardo attack, FCO officials and minister Tobias Ellwood had met in London to discuss the travel advice.

The decision was made to keep the advice at the same level but to add the phrase "further attacks are possible".

She added that countries which lost citizens in the first attack - including France, Japan, Spain and Russia - had also kept their advice at the same level as before the attack. The only country to change its advice was Poland.

It was also revealed at the inquest that a report written months before the Sousse attack had showed a lack of security at beachfront hotels.

The unofficial "recce" conducted by Foreign Office personnel in January 2015 found that dozens of hotels near where the massacre took place lacked adequate security at beach gates leading to hotels.

The inquest heard that a suicide bomber had blown himself up in a failed attempt to access a hotel in the area in October 2013. This, it was said, alerted authorities to a potential weak point.

Andrew Ritchie QC, who represents 20 victims' families, read extracts from the report to the hearing.

He said: "Given that the attack on the Riadh Palms Hotel in October 2013 was launched from the beach, particular attention was paid to the beach access points."

Security at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel, where the attack took place was also detailed in court. There were four security guards posted around the hotel including one at the main beachside entrance. However, none were armed.

There was also a good CCTV network but some cameras were broken and none were being reviewed by security.

The inquest continues.