:00:00. > :00:12.On Panorama tonight: We return to Tunisia to investigate the terror
:00:13. > :00:18.attack on the beach. I was on my knees. I just kept praying to God to
:00:19. > :00:23.keep us alive. We find the holidaymakers who say they were
:00:24. > :00:28.misled about the risks. I was just constantly asking the question - are
:00:29. > :00:33.we going to be safe? We expose the police failures that may have cost
:00:34. > :00:39.lives. The policeman admitted he was so scared he fainted. And we
:00:40. > :00:44.identify the man accused of Masterminding the attack. I've not
:00:45. > :00:47.seen that, if that's right and the families see that, they'll be
:00:48. > :00:52.shocked to see the face of the man that caused them such terrible
:00:53. > :00:55.sadness. As the inquests into the deaths of 30 British tourists
:00:56. > :01:17.prepare to open, we ask whether people could have been saved.
:01:18. > :01:30.This stretch of the beach at Souse in Tunisia is now abandoned. It used
:01:31. > :01:35.to be packed with British tourists. On June 26, 2015, around 11. 30am, a
:01:36. > :01:42.man dressed in black walked up the beach. He was carrying an assault
:01:43. > :01:48.rifle. Everything seemed to go in slow motion. As I looked across,
:01:49. > :01:54.there was a man standing there with a gun. His eyes made contact with
:01:55. > :01:58.mine. The gunman opened fire on holidaymakers sun bathing in front
:01:59. > :02:03.of the Imperial Hotel. It was captured on a mobile phone.
:02:04. > :02:10.GUNFIRE The gunfire was just so loud and
:02:11. > :02:19.rapid. It was all around us, the explosions. It was as if you were in
:02:20. > :02:25.the middle of a war zone. All I kept hearing was people screaming and
:02:26. > :02:31.shouting. It was like mass panic. Inside the hotel, the gunman hunted
:02:32. > :02:36.people down in the corridors. She said, "I can't run no." I said, "If
:02:37. > :02:43.you don't run, I'm not going to see you again." Some holidaymakers took
:02:44. > :02:51.refuge in nearby hotels. Others were take anyone by local shop keepers.
:02:52. > :02:56.Meanwhile, inside the Imperial, people barricaded themselves in
:02:57. > :03:03.their rooms. I was on my knees. I just kept praying to God to keep us
:03:04. > :03:15.alive. We didn't expect to get out. We really didn't. It was brave
:03:16. > :03:20.Tunisians on the beach who chased the gunman, Seifeddine Rezgui. The
:03:21. > :03:30.security forces were nowhere to be seen.
:03:31. > :03:42.38 tourists were killed, 30 of them British. The inquests into their
:03:43. > :03:48.deaths start next week, but we've discovered shocking information
:03:49. > :03:52.about the Sousse attack. We've seen statements from police officers
:03:53. > :03:59.there on the day, which reveal an extraordinary catalogue of failures.
:04:00. > :04:04.We've pieced together and retraced the movements of different police
:04:05. > :04:09.units that day. That morning, the chief of the tourist police, the man
:04:10. > :04:13.responsible for the safety of holidaymakers was here at the
:04:14. > :04:16.Hannibal round about, when he received a call. The police chief
:04:17. > :04:24.was told there was gunfire on the beach. He was just five minutes away
:04:25. > :04:28.with his men in the car. They had two assault rifles and bullet-proof
:04:29. > :04:32.vests in. His statement the police chief admits he was afraid. Instead
:04:33. > :04:36.of going straight to where the shooting was, the police chief
:04:37. > :04:41.decided to carry on down this road and to go to this police station
:04:42. > :04:47.over here, in a desperate search for more weapons. There was a horse back
:04:48. > :04:56.patrol just a mile-and-a-half along the beach. But they didn't respond.
:04:57. > :05:00.Their excuse? Their pistols were no match for the gunman's Kalashnikov.
:05:01. > :05:07.Another police patrol on a quad bike claimed to have a flat tyre. As
:05:08. > :05:16.Rezgui moved into the hotel, the police chief was still at the
:05:17. > :05:20.station. Finally the police chief and his men left the station and
:05:21. > :05:26.made their way down to the beach towards the hotels. Two other police
:05:27. > :05:30.officers then arrived by boat, armed with an assault rifle. Their
:05:31. > :05:37.admissions are the most shocking of all. One takes off his police shirt,
:05:38. > :05:45.so he won't be shot. The other faints out of fear. When the police
:05:46. > :05:53.chief and his men finally arrived, they wasted more time by going to
:05:54. > :05:58.the wrong hotel. From the time that Rezgui fired his first shot, it was
:05:59. > :06:08.around 40 minutes before he was finally killed down this road. The
:06:09. > :06:12.Tunisian authorities concluded the police had no plan to counter a
:06:13. > :06:16.terror attack, they weren't professional and didn't do their
:06:17. > :06:21.duty. If they had, perhaps lives could have been saved.
:06:22. > :06:29.We told the lawyers representing families at the inquests about these
:06:30. > :06:33.revelations. The police response was chaotic. They didn't communicate
:06:34. > :06:37.properly. They were slow. They seemed to be afraid of confronting
:06:38. > :06:42.the gunman. What do you think would be the families' response to that?
:06:43. > :06:45.They'll be shocked to hear that. The families would have been affected by
:06:46. > :06:51.the time it took for the police to get to the hotel. Some families have
:06:52. > :06:54.lost two or more members. They're having therapy for psychiatric
:06:55. > :06:57.conditions. Some have financial losses. They lost their main bread
:06:58. > :07:05.winner and have got real money worries. It's devastating on all
:07:06. > :07:13.concerned. The attack shouldn't have come as a surprise.
:07:14. > :07:23.The Arab Spring began right here in Tunisia six years ago. The
:07:24. > :07:30.dictatorship was toppled. The once all-powerful security forces were in
:07:31. > :07:36.disarray. And it wasn't long before Islamist militants gained a
:07:37. > :07:39.foothold. Disillusioned young Tunisians have since joined the
:07:40. > :07:50.so-called Islamic State in their thousands. The IS strategy was soon
:07:51. > :07:58.revealed, to undermine tourism, the country's economic lifeline. In
:07:59. > :08:04.2013, nearly two years before the Sousse attack a suicide bomber tried
:08:05. > :08:09.to kill tourists at another hotel along the same beach. He came
:08:10. > :08:15.directly from the beach. He tried to go through our security line. Thanks
:08:16. > :08:19.to our security, they stopped him and asked him what he's doing and
:08:20. > :08:25.what he's trying to do. There he panicked and he explodes himself a
:08:26. > :08:31.little bit early. The bomber killed himself, but no-one else. This
:08:32. > :08:38.attack should have been a wake-up call for the security forces and the
:08:39. > :08:44.tourism industry. The threat was reinforced again six months before
:08:45. > :08:59.the shootings at Sousse in an Islamic State propaganda video.
:09:00. > :09:11.Three months later, in March 2015, Tunisia's most famous museum, the
:09:12. > :09:17.Bardo, was targeted by IS. We've obtained documents which show the
:09:18. > :09:24.local police chief had been asking for extra security. He didn't get
:09:25. > :09:33.it. Shortly after, the museum was attacked.
:09:34. > :09:41.Museum guide Hamadi Ben Abdesslem was here the day two IS gunmen
:09:42. > :09:43.stormed in unchallenged. On that day, there was only one armed guard
:09:44. > :09:59.and he ran away. Hamadi is pictured on mobile phone
:10:00. > :10:21.footage as a shot rings out. Hamadi managed to lead his group to
:10:22. > :10:25.safety. Others weren't so lucky. French tourists Francoise Thauvin
:10:26. > :10:32.and her mother were in the room when the gunman first opened fire.
:10:33. > :10:39.Francoise was shot and fell to the floor.
:10:40. > :10:42.TRANSLATION: I raised my head slowly and found myself face to face with
:10:43. > :10:51.the terrorist. He was looking at what he'd done. I thought to myself,
:10:52. > :10:58."He's going to kill me, finish the job he's started." When Tunisian
:10:59. > :11:01.security forces got there, they didn't know where the gunmen were,
:11:02. > :11:10.because the CCTV coverage was so poor. Francoise hid beneath a dead
:11:11. > :11:13.body for more than two hours before she was rescued.
:11:14. > :11:17.TRANSLATION: I saw my mother stretched out in a pool of blood.
:11:18. > :11:27.Someone next to us had taken a bullet to the head. Someone else
:11:28. > :11:38.died at our feet. It was carnage. 22 people from ten countries died.
:11:39. > :11:43.Amongst them was Francoise's mother, Hugette, and a British woman, Sally
:11:44. > :11:52.Jane Adey. Hamadi doesn't show foreign tourists round any more.
:11:53. > :11:56.Most Europeans were frightened away. TRANSLATION: The jihadis are people
:11:57. > :12:01.who've been manipulated. They're not aware of the acts they carry out.
:12:02. > :12:12.It's brain washing because they are young. Both gunmen were killed at
:12:13. > :12:18.the Bardo Museum. Within a week, the police had arrested 23 suspected
:12:19. > :12:25.accomplices. Some admitted helping plan the attack. And we've obtained
:12:26. > :12:30.their confessions. These confessions reveal that three months before the
:12:31. > :12:35.Sousse beach attack, the cell had been plotting a hit on another
:12:36. > :12:44.tourist resort. This time near the capital, Tunis. The plan was to use
:12:45. > :12:48.machine guns to mow down tourists. It never happened here, but the
:12:49. > :12:52.alleged confessions should have been a sign, a clear sign to the Tunisian
:12:53. > :13:02.government of just what the jihadis had in mind. Despite the obvious
:13:03. > :13:09.risks, the Tunisian authorities failed to improve security in the
:13:10. > :13:15.beach areas. So why were British tourists travelling to such a risky
:13:16. > :13:20.place? The terror threat was clear, but the Foreign Office didn't advise
:13:21. > :13:25.British tourists against going to most parts of Tunisia. They did warn
:13:26. > :13:34.them to be vigilant, but beach areas like Sousse remained green, clear to
:13:35. > :13:40.go. In the three months after Bardo, 148,000 British tourists went to
:13:41. > :13:43.Tunisia. Went on the websites, the Government websites and everything,
:13:44. > :13:48.all we were told, we would be safe. We were doing that nearly every
:13:49. > :13:54.week. As far as I was aware, you'd be safe. So you trust in them sort
:13:55. > :13:57.of people who knew. Nicki and Andy Duffied booked their holiday to
:13:58. > :14:03.Sousse with Thomson. After the Bardo attack, they rang them many times. I
:14:04. > :14:07.was just constantly asking the question - are we going to be safe?
:14:08. > :14:12.Can you guarantee we're going to be safe? What did they say? Yes, we
:14:13. > :14:15.would. We were definitely told there would be increased security. The
:14:16. > :14:21.Duffields say they were told they couldn't cancel because of Bardo and
:14:22. > :14:26.get their money back. All I was told by my wife when she rang them up,
:14:27. > :14:30.basically if you cancel, you lost all your money. I thought well,
:14:31. > :14:34.we've paid it, we've got assurance it was safe, so we thought we'd go
:14:35. > :14:39.along. We travelled out on the Sunday before... Alison Caine had
:14:40. > :14:44.also booked with Thomson to go to the Imperial at Sousse with her
:14:45. > :14:49.husband. We called them on the 23 March after Bardo to make sure that
:14:50. > :14:55.it was still safe to travel. They reassured us it was and security had
:14:56. > :15:01.been stepped up. I just wanted to make sure again, the following
:15:02. > :15:07.month, so we called them on April 6 again, just to double check. What
:15:08. > :15:13.did they say? Everything was fine. It was safe to travel. They were not
:15:14. > :15:16.doing any refunds or transfers. So again, we were reassured. If you'd
:15:17. > :15:18.tried to cancel at that point, you wouldn't have got your money back?
:15:19. > :15:29.No, we wouldn't. Thomson job didn't just reassure
:15:30. > :15:36.existing customers but cut prices after Bardo to attract new ones. But
:15:37. > :15:45.British holiday-makers say security wasn't increased. Alison had been to
:15:46. > :15:51.the Imperial before. She thought security had got worse, not better.
:15:52. > :15:57.I did notice this one particular night, when we left the hotel there
:15:58. > :16:03.wasn't any guards on the front gate at all. Nun? No security none at
:16:04. > :16:07.all, which I thought was odd because there's always somebody sitting
:16:08. > :16:13.there. But when we came back from our walk there was one guard just
:16:14. > :16:16.sitting one side of the gate. The Duffields were shocked by the lack
:16:17. > :16:25.of protection on the beach side of the hotel. There was no security,
:16:26. > :16:32.absolutely none. That surprised us after hearing from Thomson that
:16:33. > :16:37.there would be the security. The gate was just like a normal wire
:16:38. > :16:41.fence gate that led to the beach. There was nothing else about that.
:16:42. > :16:45.There were plenty of work is about but they were just workers, nothing
:16:46. > :16:52.else. No security? No security, nothing. Thomson is owned by the
:16:53. > :16:57.joint European tour operator TUI. TUI didn't just arrange that
:16:58. > :17:03.holidays, it co-owns the company that ran the hotel. So company TUI
:17:04. > :17:09.responsible for the lack of security? They will be responsible
:17:10. > :17:14.for the provision of all services of the hotel. Including security and
:17:15. > :17:21.safety? Including security the hotel should have provided to its guests.
:17:22. > :17:28.TUI says it is cooperating fully to help ensure that the tragic deaths
:17:29. > :17:32.can be thoroughly investigated. TUI says it would be inappropriate to
:17:33. > :17:34.comment further before the inquest but don't accept the accuracy of
:17:35. > :17:41.many of the statements that have been made. The Foreign Office also
:17:42. > :17:45.said it wouldn't comment on specifics before the inquest. But
:17:46. > :17:49.the purpose of their travel advice is to give the best possible
:17:50. > :17:57.understanding of the context, threats and hazards. TUI could have
:17:58. > :18:05.improved security. Some hotels already had. So the boys at their
:18:06. > :18:09.main door at checking the customers inside the car, who they are, why
:18:10. > :18:17.they are coming, who are they exactly. Gerard Moutou runs one of
:18:18. > :18:23.the best protected hotels in Tunisia. Every part of the Radisson
:18:24. > :18:27.is watched by 75 CCTV cameras. Here you can see the front desk, you can
:18:28. > :18:33.see all the customers checking in. Somebody is on duty all the time?
:18:34. > :18:42.24-7. It is recording for up to three months. The beach here is our
:18:43. > :18:47.private beach. The hotel is protected by 24 security officers
:18:48. > :18:54.and two aren't Tunisian policeman. This level of security had been put
:18:55. > :18:58.in place before the Sousse attack. We were very proactive. As soon as
:18:59. > :19:02.something happened, we increased the security level of the hotel. Why?
:19:03. > :19:11.The simple reason we could afford to lose any customer.
:19:12. > :19:15.All the tourist hotels and the police are now implementing tighter
:19:16. > :19:20.security measures. But it may have come too late to
:19:21. > :19:33.save Tunisia's tourist industry. This is the side road where so many
:19:34. > :19:36.British tourists escaped off the beach and many of the shop owners
:19:37. > :19:42.gave them shelter, but it's all closed down now, it's a ghost town.
:19:43. > :19:53.Eventually I did find the owner of one of the stores.
:19:54. > :19:58.TRANSLATION: Since the attack there is no more business. I turned my
:19:59. > :20:02.shops into apartments. Tourists to come here any more, there are none.
:20:03. > :20:07.That is what the bad guys wanted for us.
:20:08. > :20:13.Back on the beach I caught up with Mehdi Jameli, one of the Tunisian
:20:14. > :20:19.workers who chased the gunman that day. TRANSLATION: When I walk here
:20:20. > :20:28.and remember what happened, I get the shivers. I start asking myself,
:20:29. > :20:32.why didn't I do this, instead of that? Why didn't I hide behind a
:20:33. > :20:40.boat and hit him? I think about it all the time. Mehdi risked his life
:20:41. > :20:46.to protect the tourists. Now he's lost his job on the beach, along
:20:47. > :20:50.with hundreds of others. TRANSLATION: In Tunisia, if there's
:20:51. > :20:52.terrorism the whole country is fine. If there is no tourism, the whole
:20:53. > :21:05.country suffers. The Imperial Hotel is still closed.
:21:06. > :21:11.TUI's pulled out, but the owner of the building is planning to reopen
:21:12. > :21:14.it soon. She's hoping new security measures will persuade Britain to
:21:15. > :21:21.lift its effective ban on tourist travel to Tunisia. TRANSLATION:
:21:22. > :21:28.We're extremely vigilant now in Tunisia. On the beaches, at the
:21:29. > :21:32.airport, on the roads, everywhere. So please remove this travel ban,
:21:33. > :21:38.because it's useless. To me, it's just punishing Tunisia.
:21:39. > :21:44.But the threat is still there, as young Tunisians continued to join
:21:45. > :21:56.the Islamic State every day. Hello. Thamer's brother was
:21:57. > :21:59.recruited last year. He showed me the mosque in the back streets of
:22:00. > :22:05.Sousse where he believes it all started. This is the mosque where my
:22:06. > :22:11.brother used to pray. I'm 100% sure someone had brainwashed him. Talking
:22:12. > :22:18.about the dream to have Islamic State and to follow the religion.
:22:19. > :22:23.Within weeks, Thamer's brother Mohammed had left the Libya without
:22:24. > :22:28.saying goodbye. What he's doing is not right, it's not right, no one
:22:29. > :22:33.wants that. It's not right, because killing people in the name of God
:22:34. > :22:36.is, for me, you're out of the religion. And of course there is a
:22:37. > :22:41.big problem here in Tunisia because there are so many young men like
:22:42. > :22:46.your brother, who have gone to jihad and if they came back up would be a
:22:47. > :22:50.real danger in this country? To tourists, Westerners on everyone. To
:22:51. > :22:54.tourists, even to us, even for me, even for my family and the next
:22:55. > :23:02.generation, that's for sure, it will be a big problem. Whether he comes
:23:03. > :23:08.back or not, Thamer believes Mohammed is lost forever. I've got
:23:09. > :23:13.his picture with me all the time, I'm thinking about him all the time.
:23:14. > :23:27.Because that's not the person I knew. I was losing my brother. I
:23:28. > :23:33.even... Like, I braced him. Sorry. -- raised him.
:23:34. > :23:38.The Tunisians say they are doing all they can to stop Islamic State. That
:23:39. > :23:47.doesn't always seem to be the case. Take the suspects who admitted being
:23:48. > :23:49.involved in the attack at the Bardo Museum. We've discovered some of
:23:50. > :23:57.them are no longer behind bars. The Tunisian authorities made much
:23:58. > :24:02.of their arrest of the cell behind the Bardo attack just a week
:24:03. > :24:08.afterwards. But amazingly, members of that cell, who had made
:24:09. > :24:14.apparently a frank and detailed confession, were later released on
:24:15. > :24:17.the quiet. The release happened two months after this Sousse attack,
:24:18. > :24:23.officially because of allegations of torture.
:24:24. > :24:32.But Francois and her lawyer believed the confessions were genuine.
:24:33. > :24:35.TRANSLATION: Their lawyers claim the defence of torture to get these
:24:36. > :24:39.presumed terrorist accomplices out. But their testimonies were matching
:24:40. > :24:40.and detailed, even though they were interrogated by police in different
:24:41. > :24:50.locations. We received information that the
:24:51. > :24:56.Bardo suspects were released, in return for hostages held by the
:24:57. > :25:01.Islamic State. We can't confirm that, but Tunisian hostages were
:25:02. > :25:09.freed in Libya around the same time. TRANSLATION: I'm livid. I just don't
:25:10. > :25:13.understand. Why have they let the presumed accomplices go?
:25:14. > :25:22.If they were involved in the attack, they could strike again. We've set
:25:23. > :25:27.free ticking time bombs and this is unacceptable.
:25:28. > :25:35.We've also seen confessions from suspects picked up after the Sousse
:25:36. > :25:41.attack. They show that one IS cell organised both Bardo and Sousse.
:25:42. > :25:45.Rezgui, the gunman who killed the British tourists, had close links
:25:46. > :25:53.with the Bardo gang. He met the in cafes and mosques in Tunis. He even
:25:54. > :25:58.trained with one of the Bardo gunmen at an IS camp in Libya. And there's
:25:59. > :26:01.a final revelation in the confessions. The identity of the man
:26:02. > :26:07.who is alleged to have masterminded both attacks.
:26:08. > :26:17.He is the Tunisian called Chamseddine al Sandi. The suspects
:26:18. > :26:23.say he recruited them, paid them to go to Libya for training and gave
:26:24. > :26:26.them their orders. If the confessions are accurate, then Al
:26:27. > :26:32.Sandi is responsible for the deaths of 60 people from around the world,
:26:33. > :26:37.including 31 British tourists at Sousse and Bardo, and he's still on
:26:38. > :26:43.the run. Al Sandi is believed to be in Libya. This is the man that we
:26:44. > :26:47.believe was behind the Bardo and Sousse attacks and he is still at
:26:48. > :26:52.large. What would be the family 's response, do you think? I've not
:26:53. > :26:55.seen that. If that is right and the families say that, they will be
:26:56. > :26:56.shocked to see the face of the man that cause them such terrible
:26:57. > :27:07.sadness. For all the victims of Bardo and
:27:08. > :27:14.Sousse there are still so many questions that need to be answered.
:27:15. > :27:19.TRANSLATION: There are days when you feel completely exhausted, days when
:27:20. > :27:22.you want to abandon everything. And then there are days when you want to
:27:23. > :27:31.fight to get to the truth, so this doesn't happen again. I want to be
:27:32. > :27:32.able to go to my mother's grave and tell her, today we finally know what
:27:33. > :27:41.happened. For those who escaped with their
:27:42. > :27:47.lives, the trauma still affects everything they do. I struggle with
:27:48. > :27:54.crowds. I struggle with noise. You go out, you're constantly looking
:27:55. > :28:01.for somewhere to hide. So what do you think when you look at these
:28:02. > :28:10.now? I feel sad. It should have been happy, relaxing time and it just
:28:11. > :28:21.turned into the complete nightmare. It's destroyed us. Sorry.
:28:22. > :28:30.No one will forget the horror caused by the gunman on the beach. But our
:28:31. > :28:34.investigation suggests more could have been done to protect tourists
:28:35. > :28:37.lives.