Tunisia Terror: Tales Of Courage And Survival

As Britain mourns those confirmed to have died in the Tunisia terror attack, tales of survival are emerging.

Mathew James, 30, who used his own body as a shield to protect his fiance Saera Wilson from the gunman, has been pictured giving the thumbs-up from his hospital bed in Wales.

Mr James, a gas engineer from Pontypridd, South Wales, was shot in the shoulder, chest and hip and was taken to hospital after suffering a heart attack and shattered pelvis - but his beloved partner was left unscathed.

Miss Wilson, 26, said after the attack: "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'."

But in a message from the hospital, typed by Miss Wilson, they wrote a "massive thank you" for the support, messages and donations they had received.

She added: "I am reading the messages and statuses out to Mat as they are coming in and he is overwhelmed by the response.

"Soon as he is able he will reply to people but is still recovering at the moment and I am typing for him. Much love to you all."

Christine Callaghan, from Norfolk, was injured in the attack but her sunglasses case was believed to have taken the impact of one bullet shot in her direction, according to her husband Tony.

Rita WIlliams, from Maesteg, South Wales, told Wales Online that a bullet had ripped through her £6 sun hat, missing her head by just millimetres.

The 76-year-old said: “If I didn’t have the hat on, I think the bullet would have hit me. The bullet literally skirted past my skull.”

Stockport concert pianist David Schofield, 27, said he and girlfriend Nicole Harris, 25, had planned to be on the beach but had changed their minds after "one too many gin and tonics the night before".

Cardiff civil servant Ben Milton, 24, proposed to girlfriend Shelley Hay on the night of the shooting, saying he wanted to show his love and "didn't want the terrorists to win.

He added: "I thought: 'Screw them - they are not going to stop us.' It was an act of defiance against what happened."

Ross Thomson barricaded himself in his hotel room and Rebecca Smith locked herself in the staff toilets and "hoped for the best", while Leiha Shaw and her mother Amanda Roberts ignored the hot ground burning their bare feet as they fled for their lives.

There were also accounts of the bravery shown by Tunisians who tried to protect the tourists as Seifeddine Rezgui continued prowling the beach for more victims.

Mark Barlow, 24, and Becky Catterick, 19, from Scunthorpe, said they were protected by local shopkeepers and another British tourist, named Len, from Norfolk, told the Guardian that hotel staff had run towards to beach while everyone else ran away.

Locals were reported to have created a protective ring around a group of tourists at the beach, telling the gunman he would have to kill them first and 18-year-old Ibrahim el Ghoul, who hires out jetskis on the beach, told The Daily Telegraph how he tried to help a family escape before throwing stones at the gunman.

He denied he was a hero, saying: "This is what I had to do - I love my country so much".