Investigators are searching for accomplices in the attack on a luxury hotel in the Tunisian resort city of Sousse that killed at least 38 people – some of them sunbathers on the beach.

Officers are “sure” the attacker, a 24-year-old student killed in the assault on the Imperial Marhaba Hotel, had help, the Interior Ministry said yesterday.

Mohammed Ali Aroui told the Associated Press that “we are sure that others helped but did not participate” except indirectly. He said the father of the attacker, identified as Seifeddine Rezgui, and three roommates in Kairouan where he studied have been detained for questioning.

Earlier yesterday it was announced that a total of 1,000 extra police officers are being deployed at tourist sites and beaches in Tunisia.

Interior Minister Mohamed Najem Gharsalli said: “We don’t want to make tourist establishments into barracks, that’s not our goal. But we must act to guarantee the security of the tourist sector.”

Thousands of tourists fled the North African country yesterday after its worst terrorist attack. The attack on tourists is expected to be a huge blow to Tunisia’s tourism sector, which makes up nearly 15 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product in 2014. It also comes after 22 people were killed in March at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis.

Meanwhile those who knew the gunman killed by police after the beach slaughter in Tunisia have spoken of their shock at his murderous actions.

Seifeddine Rezgui came from the town of Gaafour in the Siliana region, the country’s prime minister Habib Essid said yesterday.

He had been a student at the University of Kairouan and had never travelled abroad.

Rezgui’s uncle said he was “just like the other young men” who liked to play football or go to a café after praying in the local mosque.

He liked break dancing and was well-known for entering competitions in the capital Tunis, Ali Al-Rezgui told the Sunday Telegraph.

Referring to the practice of devout Muslim men not shaving their beards, Al-Rezgui said: “He didn’t even have a beard.”

He added: “We were all shocked when we heard the news and saw his picture, and his mother was devastated.”

Neighbours suggested the gunman may have been brainwashed. Monia Riahi, 50, who is a neighbour and family friend, described him as “good, good, good!”. She told the Observer: “I’ve known him since he was small. He was never in trouble with anyone ever. Maybe he was brainwashed or something.”

Other newspaper reports said Rezgui had posted extremist messages on social media, praising jihad.

Kairouan resident Salah Korbia told the Sunday Times that Rezgui and his four flatmates, thought to be students, were not welcome in the town due to their conservative ideology.

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