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TUNISIA: Anonymous gunmen shoot dead 20 at Bardo museum

GUNMEN opened fire at the Bardo museum in central Tunis yesterday, killing at least 20 people including 17 tourists, a cleaner and a security guard.

Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid said that Italian, Spanish, Polish and German citizens were among the dead.

Security forces rushed to the scene, shooting dead two of the attackers, but authorities believe that “two or three others” remain at large.

Eight people were killed as they got off a tour bus, while another 10 were taken hostage inside the museum and then executed.

It was not immediately clear who the gunmen were or what prompted the attack, although Tunisia’s secular government has been targeted before by Islamist extremists.

Such attacks have usually taken place in remote rural areas and yesterday’s massacre in the capital was celebrated by Isis militants in Syria and Iraq as an escalation of Islamist terror in Tunisia.

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