The international relations and co-operation department was liaising with its embassy in Tunisia on Thursday to determine if any South Africans were wounded or killed in an attack at a museum.
“We are still waiting for reports; at this point we are not able to confirm if there were South Africans involved in the attack,” spokesman Clayson Monyela said.
“We will confirm once we have received the information. Our officials at the Tunisia embassy said authorities are trying to establish the identities of those injured and killed.”
Two gunmen killed 17 foreign tourists and two Tunisians at the Bardo museum on Wednesday.
Associated Press (AP) reported on Thursday that Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid said the two Tunisian gunmen killed 17 tourists — five from Japan, four from Italy, two from Columbia, two from Spain, and one each from Australia, Poland, and France.
The nationality of one dead foreigner was not released. Essid said two Tunisian nationals were also killed by the militants, AP reported.
At least 44 people were wounded, including tourists from Italy, France, Japan, South Africa, Poland, Belgium, and Russia, according to Essid and doctors from Tunis’s Charles Nicolle hospital.
AP reported that the attackers, who wore military-style uniforms and wielded assault rifles, burst from a vehicle and began shooting at tourists getting out of buses.
The attackers — known to Tunisian intelligence services but not formally linked to a particular terrorist group — then charged inside the museum to take hostages before being killed in a firefight with security forces.
Source : Sapa /dm/fg/lp/jk
