PM confirms national minute’s silence to be held on Friday

The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be publicly named.

Tunisia’s Interior Minister Mohamed Najem Gharsalli thanked Britain’s Home Secretary Theresa May, her French counterpart and the other officials who had flocked to his side in solidarity after the attack.

The 24-year-old attacker, who used a Kalashnikov assault rifle and grenades, was killed by police after Friday’s carnage in Sousse.

Tunisian medics monitor a body in an ambulance in Sousse, Tunisia, on June 26, 2015.

A spokeswoman for Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday that 18 British nationals were confirmed to have died in Friday’s massacre but said that the number is expected to reach “around 30”.

The attack was the deadliest in Tunisia’s recent history.

He told reporters at the Foreign Office: “I think the thing that has changed is the spread of Isil into the ungoverned territory of Libya, a neigbouring country to Tunisia“.

“We will not give up our way of life and cower in the face of terrorism”, Cameron said, underlining the need both to fight IS militants in Iraq and Syria and to tackle non-violent extremists in Britain.

Tour operators Thomson and First Choice, which are owned by German travel group TUI, said they had about 6,400 customers across Tunisia at the time of the attack, including several of the people killed and injured.

The European interior ministers were due to hold talks on security cooperation.

“I would like to thank the Tunisian authorities, the Tunisian government and the staff here at the hotel for all they have done to help and support he victims”.

Standing on the sand surrounded by security officials, they at one point put their arms on each other’s shoulders.

According to Tunisia’s interior minister, the attack was carried out by a student from the city of Kairouan, located roughly 60 kilometers west of Sousse.

Tunisia expects to lose at least €460 million this year, or about a quarter of its estimated annual tourism earnings, following last Friday’s attack. Cameron said he shared the “frustration” of families waiting for news of loved ones but said the process was hard since many tourists had not been carrying identification or were too disfigured.

Flowers have been laid along the beach near the resort in Port El Kantaoui, south of the capital Tunis. Late Monday, a Royal Air Force Boeing C17 flew in to take the British wounded home.

Mrs May told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show: “What’s important is that the information is absolutely 100 per cent correct when it is given to a family”.

Tunisia has released photographs of two men being sought in connection with the shooting dead of 38 people on a tourist beach.