Tunisia | President: New security system had been set for July 1

A hooded Tunisian police officer stands guard at the scene of Friday’s shooting attack in front of the Imperial Marhaba hotel in the Mediterranean resort of Sousse

Thirty-eight tourists died in a gun attack just days before Tunisia planned to implement heightened security measures for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, but those plans had not anticipated an assault on tourist beaches, the country’s president said yesterday.
Friday’s attack, Tunisia’s worst terrorist incident, is expected to cripple the vital tourism sector, with the tourism minister predicting a half billion dollars in losses for 2015.
In an interview with Europe 1 radio, President Beji Caid Essebsi said an investigation was underway into security failures, and there would now be armed tourist police on the beaches and army reservists had been called up.
“It is not a perfect system — it is true we were surprised by this affair,” he said. “They took measures for the month of Ramadan but never did they think the attack would be on the beaches against tourists and the system of protection was set to start July 1.”
Essebsi, 88, is a veteran of Tunisia’s pre-revolutionary regime and was elected last fall on a platform of restoring security and dignity to the state.
Tunisia’s vital tourism sector suffered a staggering blow when a young electric engineering student pulled out an assault rifle at a beach near Sousse and killed 38 tourists, at least 21 of them British according to the latest figures from British Prime Minister David Cameron, though that number is expected to rise. The rampage continued for around half an hour before he was shot by police.
All wounded Britons have been repatriated, including four severely injured people who were brought back by Royal Air Force C17 transport plane. Cameron’s office said the bodies of the dead would be flown back starting today.
Since the attack, authorities have shut 80 unregulated mosques believed to preach radical doctrine, and have considered closing organizations and political parties promoting ideas counter to the constitution. Bouazza Ben Bouazza, Tunis, AP