Traumatised British survivors tell of terror after being trapped in hotel corridor with ISIS maniac hurling home-made BOMBS

  

A British couple have told of the terrifying moment they were trapped down a dead-end hotel corridor and came face to face with the bloodthirsty Tunisian terrorist, who began lobbing hand grenades at them 

Rebecca Smith, 22, from Coventry, said: 'I was peppered with grenade shrapnel. With one hit, I thought my jaw had come off.'

The office administrator and her boyfriend Ross Thompson, 21, ran for their lives as the gunman hunted down his victims.

It was the bungling staff at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel who sent them down the hallway, as Seifeddine Rezgui was firing his Kalashnikov at terrified holidaymakers.

15 Britons were among the 38 who were mercilessly killed in the massacre yesterday and that number 'may well rise', Tunisia's Foreign Minister Tobias Ellwood has said. 

He added it was 'the most significant terrorist attack on the British people' since July 7 bombings in 2005, when 52 people were killed in London. Another 40 were injured - 25 of whom were British.

The first British victim was today named as Carly Lovett, 24, a fashion blogger from Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. She was on holiday with her fiancee Liam Moore who is known to have survived the attack.

Adrian Evans, an employee of Sandwell Council in the West Midlands, and his 22-year-old stepson Joel Richards are also reported to have been killed.

Lorna Carty, a nurse from Ireland, was confirmed as dead yesterday. She had taken her husband on holiday to help him recover from heart surgery. 

The news of their deaths comes as survivors begin to tell of their miraculous escapes.

Mr Thompson, a fire safety officer, who lived through the onslaught said: 'We followed the majority of people to the second floor. Staff were saying "Come this way". But when we got to the end of a corridor it was a dead end. There was no way down but a 30ft drop. 

'We managed to get into a room and barricaded the door. It happened that there were two British ex-military guys with us and they were telling us what to do. It felt like we were in there 45 minutes.

'Then we could hear him coming up the stairs. He started firing down the corridor. We tried to escape but he caught us.

'There was no way out, we were trapped at the end of the corridor, and then he started lobbing these home-made bombs at us.

'He was about 20 metres down the corridor, he had us trapped and he was shooting at people too. People were running around like flies. There were three people killed. I thought it was game over... I was shot in the toe.' 

Miss Smith added: 'We got separated. The corridor just exploded and it was chaos. I didn't know if Ross was dead or alive. I locked myself in a staff toilet with a British woman and her 16-year-old son.

'She was terrified because her younger son was alone in their bedroom, and she was texting him to check if he was all right.

'We stayed in there for nearly an hour, completely terrified of coming out in case he got us... We heard gunshots but we didn't know if it was him, or the police... We didn't know who to trust. We heard people outside but didn't want to risk it.'

The couple, who were on the first day of their two-week Thompson holiday, are now recovering at the Sahloul Hospital in Sousse.

Miss Smith said: 'The president of Tunisia came to the hospital and said sorry... We've seen more of the Tunisian government than anyone from our own. The Foreign Office are trying to help but they have so much to do.' 

Another injured Briton, Matthew James, is fighting for his life after being shot three times in the stomach. He heroically used his own body as a human shield to protect his fiancee Sarah Wilson.

Tunisia's Foreign Minister Tobias Ellwood described the attack on a beach packed with innocent sunbathers as an act of 'evil and brutality'.

British police have now flown to the resort to help identify victims and consular teams are in hospitals and hotels looking after those affected, he added.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the barbaric attack - and named the gunman as Seifeddine Rezgui, a 23-year-old aviation student who has never left the country.

His rampage followed a chilling threat from ISIS that the holy month of Ramadan - which ends on August 18 - 'will have lots of surprises'.

Eyewitnesses claim the depraved shooter was laughing and joking among the midday bathers and sun-seekers, looking like any other tourist.

'He was laughing and joking around, like a normal guy,' said one. 'He was choosing who to shoot. Some people, he was saying to them "you go away". He was choosing tourists, British, French.'

Others described how he also used grenades in the attack as he moved methodically from the beach to the pool - and then into the hotel lobby.

'When he came he tossed a grenade and we saw only black - it was smoky,' said Imen Belfekih, who works for the Imperial Marhaba Hotel where the attack took place.

More than three hours after the massacre, an apparent accomplice was arrested near the motorway. 

Pictures showed him being punched in the face by a furious woman as he was marched through the town by armed police.

The Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid said today: 'We are at war against terrorism which represents a serious danger to national unity during this delicate period that the nation is going through.'

Today, he announced a series of new security measures including closing renegade mosques and calling up army reservists in the wake of his country's worst ever terrorist attack.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has said that the UK faces a 'severe terrorist threat'.

He announced there would be 'heightened security' for the high-profile events being held across the country such as the Armed Forces Day parade. 

He also said the the country needs to prepare itself for the fact that many of the 38 killed in the 'savage' shooting were British.

As around 40 others recover in hospital - 25 of whom are British - thousands of worried tourists have begun to board flights back home to the UK.

The Chief Executive of Tui Group, which owns Thomson and First Choice travel agents, said 1,000 customers had already been repatriated and 5,400 are still in Tunisia.

Another British woman who was shot in the leg in the terror attack yesterday believes she would be dead if her glasses case had not diverted the bullet. 

Christine Callaghan said the bullet would have hit her in the stomach but 'ricocheted' off the glasses case in her bag and struck her thigh instead.

She declared: 'I'm just lucky to be alive. If it hadn't been for my glasses, I might not have survived.'

Mrs Callaghan, 61, was shot as she ran for her life while her courageous husband, formerly in the RAF, stayed behind and braved the hail of bullets to help elderly flee the killing zone.

Tony Callaghan, 63, a property officer with North Walsham PEO in Norfolk, ordered his wife to run while he escorted 'dazed' older people from the hotel pool to safety.

The couple, grandparents from North Walsham, were sunbathing by the pool when the murderous spree began at the Imperial Marhaba hotel.

Mr Callaghan, who served as an RAF mechanic for 23 years, said: 'It was absolutely terrifying. We were running for our lives, literally. It was like the click of a finger whether you lived or died.

'I am so sorry for the 39 people who died. It was absolutely terrifying...At the pool area, I stopped to help people. There were elderly people walking round in a daze.

'I couldn't just leave them. So I just did what I could. But I was frightened too.'

Mr Callaghan was treated for non life-threatening injuries along with his wife at Sahloul University Hospital. 

His wife, speaking from her hospital bed where she has a fractured femur, said: 'We were around the pool area sunbathing when we heard gunfire and everyone was just rushing by with flip-flops.

'My husband told me to run, but he stayed back to organise people, even though he had an injury to his leg‎.

'He was in the forces for 23 years and his instincts just kicked in... He was screaming at people to get off, to 'run! run!'. 

'People thought it was a firework display or something... As I ran, I was shot, although I didn't know I had been. I wasn't in pain, just total shock.

'I had been clutching my beach bag in front of me, against my middle, and inside were my glasses in a hard case. The bullet must have ricocheted off the glasses case, otherwise it would have hit my stomach. My glasses are all bent now.'

Mrs Callaghan, an NHS health care assistant ‎in a hospital in Norfolk, said: 'We ran and we were separated for what seemed like hours.

'I was in a corridor. A lady called Shirley and her husband Joe were there. She was lying on her front. She had been shot four times.

'My right leg was stuck at an awkward angle across my middle, the flesh completely open‎. I thought I would lose my leg.

'Shirley was lying there in a pool of blood... I kept talking to her and holding her hand and praying, while her husband tied a tourniquet... We were shouting for help for half an hour before anyone came.' 

Mrs Callaghan, who has two grandchildren by her daughter Amanda, and also has a son, Andrew, said she felt 'tired and rough' but was immensely proud of her husband.

'He was brilliant, my husband,' she said. 'We married young and we're still together. We have been married 44 years.'

'This is our third holiday in Tunisia. I just can't believe what has happened... I just keep crying. I want to go home.

'I am so sorry for the country of Tunisia. They are such lovely people. It is so unfair for them. Ordinary people keep saying sorry to me.'

Tunisian doctors at the Sahloul Hospital in Sousse said Mrs Callaghan would need multiple operations to fix her leg but that she could make a full recovery.

She is in a general ward in the hospital two floors above the room where her husband is recovering from his more minor leg injury.