Families voice concerns over terror warnings

Relatives of some of the 30 Britons gunned down on the resort of Sousse in June last year fear not enough was done to alert holidaymakers of the terror risk.

The Tunisian ambassador to the UK has urged the Foreign Office to relax its current advice, which warns against all but essential travel to the North African country.

Andrew Ritchie QC, who represents 17 families, said the Foreign Office had potentially failed to require holiday companies to warn Britons of the dangers.

Travel agents allegedly lowered their prices to try and “entice” more Britons to Tunisia, after 24 people were killed in a terror attack at Bardo National Museum in the capital Tunis in March 2015.

Foreign Office advice for travellers in June 2015 stated: “There is a high risk from terrorism, including kidnapping. Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places visited by foreigners.

“This had only been produced online but we are going to consider, in light of future evidence, whether Her Majesty’s Government should have imposed a duty of candour on the travel companies,” Mr Ritchie said at a pre-inquest hearing into the deaths.

He said travel agents, including Thompson’s parent company TUI, had informed the Foreign Office that they intended to use “reduced pricing strategies for further tourists to be enticed to Tunisia following the Bardo attack”.

A pre-inquest hearing was held at the Royal Courts of Justice in London to decide how to proceed. The bloody attack by Seifeddine Rezguion on June 26 2015, claimed a total of 38 lives, with terror group Islamic State (IS) claiming responsibility.