Terror on the Beach: Why Did It Happen? Panorama

On Panorama tonight: We return to Tunisia to investigate the terror

attack on the beach. I was on my knees. I just kept praying to God to

keep us alive. We find the holidaymakers who say they were

misled about the risks. I was just constantly asking the question - are

we going to be safe? We expose the police failures that may have cost

lives. The policeman admitted he was so scared he fainted. And we

identify the man accused of Masterminding the attack. I've not

seen that, if that's right and the families see that, they'll be

shocked to see the face of the man that caused them such terrible

sadness. As the inquests into the deaths of 30 British tourists

prepare to open, we ask whether people could have been saved.

This stretch of the beach at Souse in Tunisia is now abandoned. It used

to be packed with British tourists. On June 26, 2015, around 11. 30am, a

man dressed in black walked up the beach. He was carrying an assault

rifle. Everything seemed to go in slow motion. As I looked across,

there was a man standing there with a gun. His eyes made contact with

mine. The gunman opened fire on holidaymakers sun bathing in front

of the Imperial Hotel. It was captured on a mobile phone.

GUNFIRE The gunfire was just so loud and

rapid. It was all around us, the explosions. It was as if you were in

the middle of a war zone. All I kept hearing was people screaming and

shouting. It was like mass panic. Inside the hotel, the gunman hunted

people down in the corridors. She said, "I can't run no." I said, "If

you don't run, I'm not going to see you again." Some holidaymakers took

refuge in nearby hotels. Others were take anyone by local shop keepers.

Meanwhile, inside the Imperial, people barricaded themselves in

their rooms. I was on my knees. I just kept praying to God to keep us

alive. We didn't expect to get out. We really didn't. It was brave

Tunisians on the beach who chased the gunman, Seifeddine Rezgui. The

security forces were nowhere to be seen.

38 tourists were killed, 30 of them British. The inquests into their

deaths start next week, but we've discovered shocking information

about the Sousse attack. We've seen statements from police officers

there on the day, which reveal an extraordinary catalogue of failures.

We've pieced together and retraced the movements of different police

units that day. That morning, the chief of the tourist police, the man

responsible for the safety of holidaymakers was here at the

Hannibal round about, when he received a call. The police chief

was told there was gunfire on the beach. He was just five minutes away

with his men in the car. They had two assault rifles and bullet-proof

vests in. His statement the police chief admits he was afraid. Instead

of going straight to where the shooting was, the police chief

decided to carry on down this road and to go to this police station

over here, in a desperate search for more weapons. There was a horse back

patrol just a mile-and-a-half along the beach. But they didn't respond.

Their excuse? Their pistols were no match for the gunman's Kalashnikov.

Another police patrol on a quad bike claimed to have a flat tyre. As

Rezgui moved into the hotel, the police chief was still at the

station. Finally the police chief and his men left the station and

made their way down to the beach towards the hotels. Two other police

officers then arrived by boat, armed with an assault rifle. Their

admissions are the most shocking of all. One takes off his police shirt,

so he won't be shot. The other faints out of fear. When the police

chief and his men finally arrived, they wasted more time by going to

the wrong hotel. From the time that Rezgui fired his first shot, it was

around 40 minutes before he was finally killed down this road. The

Tunisian authorities concluded the police had no plan to counter a

terror attack, they weren't professional and didn't do their

duty. If they had, perhaps lives could have been saved.

We told the lawyers representing families at the inquests about these

revelations. The police response was chaotic. They didn't communicate

properly. They were slow. They seemed to be afraid of confronting

the gunman. What do you think would be the families' response to that?

They'll be shocked to hear that. The families would have been affected by

the time it took for the police to get to the hotel. Some families have

lost two or more members. They're having therapy for psychiatric

conditions. Some have financial losses. They lost their main bread

winner and have got real money worries. It's devastating on all

concerned. The attack shouldn't have come as a surprise.

The Arab Spring began right here in Tunisia six years ago. The

dictatorship was toppled. The once all-powerful security forces were in

disarray. And it wasn't long before Islamist militants gained a

foothold. Disillusioned young Tunisians have since joined the

so-called Islamic State in their thousands. The IS strategy was soon

revealed, to undermine tourism, the country's economic lifeline. In

2013, nearly two years before the Sousse attack a suicide bomber tried

to kill tourists at another hotel along the same beach. He came

directly from the beach. He tried to go through our security line. Thanks

to our security, they stopped him and asked him what he's doing and

what he's trying to do. There he panicked and he explodes himself a

little bit early. The bomber killed himself, but no-one else. This

attack should have been a wake-up call for the security forces and the

tourism industry. The threat was reinforced again six months before

the shootings at Sousse in an Islamic State propaganda video.

Three months later, in March 2015, Tunisia's most famous museum, the

Bardo, was targeted by IS. We've obtained documents which show the

local police chief had been asking for extra security. He didn't get

it. Shortly after, the museum was attacked.

Museum guide Hamadi Ben Abdesslem was here the day two IS gunmen

stormed in unchallenged. On that day, there was only one armed guard

and he ran away. Hamadi is pictured on mobile phone

footage as a shot rings out. Hamadi managed to lead his group to

safety. Others weren't so lucky. French tourists Francoise Thauvin

and her mother were in the room when the gunman first opened fire.

Francoise was shot and fell to the floor.

TRANSLATION: I raised my head slowly and found myself face to face with

the terrorist. He was looking at what he'd done. I thought to myself,

"He's going to kill me, finish the job he's started." When Tunisian

security forces got there, they didn't know where the gunmen were,

because the CCTV coverage was so poor. Francoise hid beneath a dead

body for more than two hours before she was rescued.

TRANSLATION: I saw my mother stretched out in a pool of blood.

Someone next to us had taken a bullet to the head. Someone else

died at our feet. It was carnage. 22 people from ten countries died.

Amongst them was Francoise's mother, Hugette, and a British woman, Sally

Jane Adey. Hamadi doesn't show foreign tourists round any more.

Most Europeans were frightened away. TRANSLATION: The jihadis are people

who've been manipulated. They're not aware of the acts they carry out.

It's brain washing because they are young. Both gunmen were killed at

the Bardo Museum. Within a week, the police had arrested 23 suspected

accomplices. Some admitted helping plan the attack. And we've obtained

their confessions. These confessions reveal that three months before the

Sousse beach attack, the cell had been plotting a hit on another

tourist resort. This time near the capital, Tunis. The plan was to use

machine guns to mow down tourists. It never happened here, but the

alleged confessions should have been a sign, a clear sign to the Tunisian

government of just what the jihadis had in mind. Despite the obvious

risks, the Tunisian authorities failed to improve security in the

beach areas. So why were British tourists travelling to such a risky

place? The terror threat was clear, but the Foreign Office didn't advise

British tourists against going to most parts of Tunisia. They did warn

them to be vigilant, but beach areas like Sousse remained green, clear to

go. In the three months after Bardo, 148,000 British tourists went to

Tunisia. Went on the websites, the Government websites and everything,

all we were told, we would be safe. We were doing that nearly every

week. As far as I was aware, you'd be safe. So you trust in them sort

of people who knew. Nicki and Andy Duffied booked their holiday to

Sousse with Thomson. After the Bardo attack, they rang them many times. I

was just constantly asking the question - are we going to be safe?

Can you guarantee we're going to be safe? What did they say? Yes, we

would. We were definitely told there would be increased security. The

Duffields say they were told they couldn't cancel because of Bardo and

get their money back. All I was told by my wife when she rang them up,

basically if you cancel, you lost all your money. I thought well,

we've paid it, we've got assurance it was safe, so we thought we'd go

along. We travelled out on the Sunday before... Alison Caine had

also booked with Thomson to go to the Imperial at Sousse with her

husband. We called them on the 23 March after Bardo to make sure that

it was still safe to travel. They reassured us it was and security had

been stepped up. I just wanted to make sure again, the following

month, so we called them on April 6 again, just to double check. What

did they say? Everything was fine. It was safe to travel. They were not

doing any refunds or transfers. So again, we were reassured. If you'd

tried to cancel at that point, you wouldn't have got your money back?

No, we wouldn't. Thomson job didn't just reassure

existing customers but cut prices after Bardo to attract new ones. But

British holiday-makers say security wasn't increased. Alison had been to

the Imperial before. She thought security had got worse, not better.

I did notice this one particular night, when we left the hotel there

wasn't any guards on the front gate at all. Nun? No security none at

all, which I thought was odd because there's always somebody sitting

there. But when we came back from our walk there was one guard just

sitting one side of the gate. The Duffields were shocked by the lack

of protection on the beach side of the hotel. There was no security,

absolutely none. That surprised us after hearing from Thomson that

there would be the security. The gate was just like a normal wire

fence gate that led to the beach. There was nothing else about that.

There were plenty of work is about but they were just workers, nothing

else. No security? No security, nothing. Thomson is owned by the

joint European tour operator TUI. TUI didn't just arrange that

holidays, it co-owns the company that ran the hotel. So company TUI

responsible for the lack of security? They will be responsible

for the provision of all services of the hotel. Including security and

safety? Including security the hotel should have provided to its guests.

TUI says it is cooperating fully to help ensure that the tragic deaths

can be thoroughly investigated. TUI says it would be inappropriate to

comment further before the inquest but don't accept the accuracy of

many of the statements that have been made. The Foreign Office also

said it wouldn't comment on specifics before the inquest. But

the purpose of their travel advice is to give the best possible

understanding of the context, threats and hazards. TUI could have

improved security. Some hotels already had. So the boys at their

main door at checking the customers inside the car, who they are, why

they are coming, who are they exactly. Gerard Moutou runs one of

the best protected hotels in Tunisia. Every part of the Radisson

is watched by 75 CCTV cameras. Here you can see the front desk, you can

see all the customers checking in. Somebody is on duty all the time?

24-7. It is recording for up to three months. The beach here is our

private beach. The hotel is protected by 24 security officers

and two aren't Tunisian policeman. This level of security had been put

in place before the Sousse attack. We were very proactive. As soon as

something happened, we increased the security level of the hotel. Why?

The simple reason we could afford to lose any customer.

All the tourist hotels and the police are now implementing tighter

security measures. But it may have come too late to

save Tunisia's tourist industry. This is the side road where so many

British tourists escaped off the beach and many of the shop owners

gave them shelter, but it's all closed down now, it's a ghost town.

Eventually I did find the owner of one of the stores.

TRANSLATION: Since the attack there is no more business. I turned my

shops into apartments. Tourists to come here any more, there are none.

That is what the bad guys wanted for us.

Back on the beach I caught up with Mehdi Jameli, one of the Tunisian

workers who chased the gunman that day. TRANSLATION: When I walk here

and remember what happened, I get the shivers. I start asking myself,

why didn't I do this, instead of that? Why didn't I hide behind a

boat and hit him? I think about it all the time. Mehdi risked his life

to protect the tourists. Now he's lost his job on the beach, along

with hundreds of others. TRANSLATION: In Tunisia, if there's

terrorism the whole country is fine. If there is no tourism, the whole

country suffers. The Imperial Hotel is still closed.

TUI's pulled out, but the owner of the building is planning to reopen

it soon. She's hoping new security measures will persuade Britain to

lift its effective ban on tourist travel to Tunisia. TRANSLATION:

We're extremely vigilant now in Tunisia. On the beaches, at the

airport, on the roads, everywhere. So please remove this travel ban,

because it's useless. To me, it's just punishing Tunisia.

But the threat is still there, as young Tunisians continued to join

the Islamic State every day. Hello. Thamer's brother was

recruited last year. He showed me the mosque in the back streets of

Sousse where he believes it all started. This is the mosque where my

brother used to pray. I'm 100% sure someone had brainwashed him. Talking

about the dream to have Islamic State and to follow the religion.

Within weeks, Thamer's brother Mohammed had left the Libya without

saying goodbye. What he's doing is not right, it's not right, no one

wants that. It's not right, because killing people in the name of God

is, for me, you're out of the religion. And of course there is a

big problem here in Tunisia because there are so many young men like

your brother, who have gone to jihad and if they came back up would be a

real danger in this country? To tourists, Westerners on everyone. To

tourists, even to us, even for me, even for my family and the next

generation, that's for sure, it will be a big problem. Whether he comes

back or not, Thamer believes Mohammed is lost forever. I've got

his picture with me all the time, I'm thinking about him all the time.

Because that's not the person I knew. I was losing my brother. I

even... Like, I braced him. Sorry. -- raised him.

The Tunisians say they are doing all they can to stop Islamic State. That

doesn't always seem to be the case. Take the suspects who admitted being

involved in the attack at the Bardo Museum. We've discovered some of

them are no longer behind bars. The Tunisian authorities made much

of their arrest of the cell behind the Bardo attack just a week

afterwards. But amazingly, members of that cell, who had made

apparently a frank and detailed confession, were later released on

the quiet. The release happened two months after this Sousse attack,

officially because of allegations of torture.

But Francois and her lawyer believed the confessions were genuine.

TRANSLATION: Their lawyers claim the defence of torture to get these

presumed terrorist accomplices out. But their testimonies were matching

and detailed, even though they were interrogated by police in different

locations. We received information that the

Bardo suspects were released, in return for hostages held by the

Islamic State. We can't confirm that, but Tunisian hostages were

freed in Libya around the same time. TRANSLATION: I'm livid. I just don't

understand. Why have they let the presumed accomplices go?

If they were involved in the attack, they could strike again. We've set

free ticking time bombs and this is unacceptable.

We've also seen confessions from suspects picked up after the Sousse

attack. They show that one IS cell organised both Bardo and Sousse.

Rezgui, the gunman who killed the British tourists, had close links

with the Bardo gang. He met the in cafes and mosques in Tunis. He even

trained with one of the Bardo gunmen at an IS camp in Libya. And there's

a final revelation in the confessions. The identity of the man

who is alleged to have masterminded both attacks.

He is the Tunisian called Chamseddine al Sandi. The suspects

say he recruited them, paid them to go to Libya for training and gave

them their orders. If the confessions are accurate, then Al

Sandi is responsible for the deaths of 60 people from around the world,

including 31 British tourists at Sousse and Bardo, and he's still on

the run. Al Sandi is believed to be in Libya. This is the man that we

believe was behind the Bardo and Sousse attacks and he is still at

large. What would be the family 's response, do you think? I've not

seen that. If that is right and the families say that, they will be

shocked to see the face of the man that cause them such terrible

sadness. For all the victims of Bardo and

Sousse there are still so many questions that need to be answered.

TRANSLATION: There are days when you feel completely exhausted, days when

you want to abandon everything. And then there are days when you want to

fight to get to the truth, so this doesn't happen again. I want to be

able to go to my mother's grave and tell her, today we finally know what

happened. For those who escaped with their

lives, the trauma still affects everything they do. I struggle with

crowds. I struggle with noise. You go out, you're constantly looking

for somewhere to hide. So what do you think when you look at these

now? I feel sad. It should have been happy, relaxing time and it just

turned into the complete nightmare. It's destroyed us. Sorry.

No one will forget the horror caused by the gunman on the beach. But our

investigation suggests more could have been done to protect tourists

lives.