ΦΩΤΟΡΕΠΟΡΤΑΖ--Terrorist coward hides his face as outraged woman punches him after he is arrested for killing 28 defenceless tourists in machine gun massacre on Tunisian beach ...

Terrified British tourists today told of the moment gunmen massacred sunbathers as they lay on a beach in Tunisia.

Militants, feared to be from ISIS, opened fire on holidaymakers at two hotels in Sousse, killing at least 28 and injuring 36 others.

A 16-year-old English national reportedly survived the bloodbath after seeing his parents and grandmother killed in front of him.

The boy was being treated for his injuries in hospital, according to a report by a Tunisian radio station.

Another Briton, Matthew James, was left fighting for his life after being shot four times.

Other victims who died included an Irish woman, Tunisians, Germans and Belgians. 

Scroll down for videos

+16

Bodies lie on a beach in Sousse after gunmen opened fire on tourists at two hotels, killing at least 28

+16

Armed police stand over the body of a victim shot dead on the beach by Islamist gunmen in Tunisia

+16

An officer speaks on his phone as he walks past the dead body of one of the gunmen on the ground

+16

Medics help an injured man in Sousse after gunmen stormed beaches of two hotels in the town of Sousse

Witnesses said the terrorists used a jet ski and a boat to access the beach and hid their machine guns in parasols while dressed in Western clothing. 

The body of one gunman lay at the scene with a Kalashnikov after he was shot in an exchange of gunfire with police.

A second suspect was later arrested near a motorway. Pictures showed him being punched in the face by a furious woman as he was marched through the town by armed police.  

A Tunisian student, previously unknown to the security services, is the prime suspect in the massacre, Tunisia's Secretary of State for Security, Rafik Chelly revealed.

Mr Chelly told Tunisia's Mosaique FM radio station: 'He is Tunisian, from the Kairouan region [in the centre of Tunisia]. He is a student. He was not known [to the security services].

'He went to the beach, dressed like someone who is going for a swim and he had a parasol [sun umbrella] inside which he had his weapon. After he arrived at the beach, he used his weapon.'  

+16

Emotions running high: A woman launches a furious attack on one of the suspected gunmen accused of shooting at least 28 people on the beach in the Tunisian resort of Al-Qantawi resort in the city of Sousse

+16

 The suspect gunman was attacked after reportedly being captured by the entrance to the Sousse motorway

+16

Tunisian security forces escort a man through the streets of Sousse as he is attacked by a woman

The attack took place at the Al-Qantawi resort in the city of Sousse, around 140 kilometres south of the capital Tunis on the Mediterranean coast.

The hotels attacked are understood to be the Imperial Marhaba and the Soviva. 

Ridha Jegham, director general of the Royal Kenz Hotel opposite the Imperial Marhaba Hotel, told a local radio station that the terrorists used a  jet ski and boat to access the beach.

He said he had passed the information to the country’s Interior Minister. 

British tourist Gary Pine told Sky News said: 'We thought fire crackers were going off but you could see quite quickly what was going on.

'There was a mass exodus off the beach. My son was in the sea at the time and myself and my wife were shouting at him to get out and as he ran up he said I've just saw someone get shot. 

'One attacker opened fire with a Kalashnikov on tourists and Tunisians on the beach of the hotel', said a hotel worker at the site. 

'It was just one attacker. He was a young guy dressed in shorts like he was a tourist himself.'  

+16

This picture shows the body of a western holidaymaker lying dead on the beach in Sousse - empty sun loungers can be seen behind him after people fled the area 

+16

This picture shows dead bodies on the beach following the attack on the beach today

+16

Police stand over one of the gunmen after the attack in the popular tourist destination today 

Elizabeth O'Brien, an Irish woman on holiday with her two sons in the resort, described how she grabbed her children and ran for their lives when they heard gunfire erupting from one of the hotels.

She said: 'We were on the beach. My sons were in the sea and I just got out of the sea. 

'It was about 12 o'clock and I just looked up about 500 metres from me and I saw a (hot air) balloon collapse down, then rapid firing, then I saw two of the people who were going to go up in the balloon start to run towards me - because I thought it was fireworks.

'So, I thought 'oh my God, it sounds like gunfire', so I just ran to the sea to my children and grabbed our things and as I was running towards the hotel.

'The waiters and the security on the beach started saying 'run, run run!' and we just ran to our room, which is like a little bungalow. So we are actually trapped in our room.' 

The British Government's emergency Cobra committee will meet this afternoon following the attack in Tunisia and another one in France where a man was decapitated at a gas factory by terrorists carrying Islamist banners.

Prime Minister David offered 'our solidarity in fighting this evil of terrorism'. 

He added: 'Our hearts go out to the victims of appalling terrorist acts in France and Tunisia.' 

+16

Tunisian troops stand guard outside the hotel in an armoured car after the terror attack

Susan Rickett, who was staying at the Palm Marina Hotel near Sousse, said: 'My sister was talking to someone who had seen some people shooting and had shot someone on a sun bed but we don't know if that's true.

'It sounded like a machine gun going off... and there was a kind of explosion a little bit later.

'They're saying its going on in the hotel next to us. Police were chasing some men, that's all I know.'  

Rebecca Miles, a British tourist who was staying at the Royal Kenz hotel with her boyfriend Dean Anderson, 24, told MailOnline: 'We were told to go back to our rooms because there were reports of a bomb.

'It happened about half an hour ago – I heard a bang and I thought it was thunder but it was a clear sky so it obviously wasn't.

'I heard sirens going off about 20 minutes ago and everyone came running back from the private hotel beach which is about 400 metres from the hotel. Everyone is a bit clueless about what is happening.  

'People are anxious because they don't really know what is happening and we are now stuck in our rooms. There have been deaths apparently.'  

+16

This picture shows the empty beach following the attack which has left 28 people, mainly tourists, dead 

+16

The terrorist attack happened in the popular holiday destination of Sousse in the north of Tunisia 

+16

It has been reported that the attack happened on the private beach of the Royal Kenz Hotel, which is situated 400 metres away 

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest involving foreigners in Tunisia since a 2002 suicide bombing on the island of Djerba.

The attack comes just hours after a man was decapitated and dozens more injured at a gas product factory in France by terrorists carrying Islamist banners.

The attack took place at the headquarters of the American owned Air Products, in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, near the city of Lyon, in the south east of the country. 

The murder is believed to have been accompanied by several explosions on the site cause by a terrorist igniting small 'gas bombs' that injured dozens of factory workers. 

It is believed the explosions may have intended to blow up the entire factory site but failed.

The murdered man's head is understood to have been found 30 feet away from his body, hanging on the factory's fence. 

The dead man's head was covered in Arabic 'inscriptions' before being placed on the fence, according to local journalists at the scene.

A 30-year-old man - named by French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve as Yacine Sali who is understood to have been known to security services since at least 2006 - has already been arrested at the scene, telling police officers that he is a member of the Islamic State terror group. 

The man is believed not to have a criminal record but was considered to have 'possibly been radicalised'.

TERROR IN TUNISIA: SOUSSE MASSACRE COMES JUST THREE MONTHS AFTER 22 PEOPLE WERE KILLED IN BARDO MUSEUM ATTACK 

This morning's savage attack on a beach near two tourist hotels on the Mediterranean comes as Tunisia was just beginning to recover from the massacre of 22 people in March.

In that attack gunmen stormed the Bardo National Museum in the capital Tunis, firing indiscriminately in a brazen daylight raid.

Three jihadis opened fire on a bus load of tourists arriving at the museum before chasing them into the building and killing more, Prime Minister Habib Essid said at the time.

21 people were killed at the scene - including one Briton - while another person died 10 days later in hospital.

A further 50 people were injured in what is believed to be the worst terror attack in modern Tunisian history.

Two of the perpetrators, Yassine Labidi and Saber Khachnaoui, were killed at the scene of the attack, while the third identity is not yet clear.

Dozens of men have so far been arrested in connection with the attack, although many of them were detained on suspicion of helping to plan the massacre, rather than taking part.

Tunisian officials blamed the Bardo museum attack on a local terror group called the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade - an Al Qaeda offshoot that declared allegiance to ISIS last September.

The British victim of the Bardo museum attack was mother-of-two Sally Adey, of Caynstall, near Shifnal, Shropshire.

The retired British solicitor died from wounds to her stomach and pelvis while on a stop off on a Mediterranean cruise with her 52-year-old husband Robert, who survived the attack and had to identify his wife's body.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3140454/Tourists-run-lives-Tunisian-beach-gunman-carries-attack-outside-hotel-packed-Britons.html#ixzz3eBXRu0n7
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook