Security at beach hotels in the Tunisian resort of Sousse was criticised in a report produced for the British Government months before 38 people were killed in a terrorist attack there, an inquest has heard.
The January 2015 “recce” of hotels included the five-star Riu Imperial Marhaba where extremist Seifeddine Rezgui massacred tourists — including 30 Britons and three Irish citizens — the following June.
The inquests into the deaths of the British victims heard that the report questioned the security at the beach entrances to some 30 hotels in three Mediterranean resorts.
Rezgui killed around 10 of his victims on the beach and then entered the upmarket hotel from the entrance on the sand.
The resort had previously been targeted by a suicide bomber in October 2013, who killed only himself, the inquest heard.
Andrew Ritchie QC, who represents 20 victims’ families, read extracts from the heavily redacted report to the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
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.
“It (the report) said ‘Despite some good security infrastructure around the hotels and resorts there seems to be little in the way of effective security to prevent or respond to an attack (from the beach)’.”
Mr Ritchie told the inquest the Government was aware that Islamic State-linked extremists had warned the terror group would target tourists in a video posted on YouTube in December 2014.
The inquests have previously heard that official guidance for tourists to Tunisia said there was a “high risk of terrorism” at the time of the Sousse attack.
This had not been updated to the highest level of advising against all travel despite a previous terror attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis in March 2015 that killed 24 people, including 20 tourists.
PA