A gunman disguised as a tourist opened fire at a Tunisian hotel yesterday, killing 37 people, including British, German and Belgian tourists, as they lounged at the beach and pool in a popular resort town.

Terrified tourists ran for cover after there was gunfire and an explosion at the Imperial Marhaba in Sousse, south of the capital, Tunis, before police shot the gunman dead.

Also yesterday, a decapitated body daubed with Arabic writing was found in France, a suicide bomber killed two dozen people at a mosque in Kuwait and at least 145 civilians were killed by IS militants in northern Syria.

There seemed to be no Maltese people in the vicinity of the attack

A Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman said they were in contact with the Maltese Embassy in Tunisia. “There seemed to be no Maltese people in the vicinity of the attack,” he said.

The Maltese government described the attacks last night as both shocking and worrying. Foreign Affairs Minister George Vella spoke with his Tunisian counterpart, Taïeb Baccouche, urging him and his government not to allow such attacks to undermine or threaten the political stability that had prevailed in the country over the past years.

French special police escort a woman from a residential building yesterday during a raid in Saint-Priest, France. The suspect arrested did not have a criminal record but had been under watch as being possibly radicalised. Photo: Emmanuel Foudrot/Reuters