Tunisia attack: Essex nurse claims second gunman was firing at the height of hotel shooting

Other eyewitnesses have backed-up the second gunman claims

Ms Murray, left, with her fiancé, Mr Ruszkiewicz (Radley Ruszkiewicz via Facebook)

An Essex woman shot in both legs during the Tunisia beach attack has claimed a second gunman opened fired during the massacre.

Nursery nurse Kirsty Murray, 25, said she and her fiancé, Radley Ruszkiewicz, 29, were shot at by an attacker who was not Seifeddine Rezgui – the gunman who was eventually killed by police.

Speaking to the Daily Mail from the hospital where she is currently being treated, Ms Murray’s father, Neil Murray, spoke about the moment the attack happened and said: “She was swimming in the pool and she said she heard people shooting. She was with Radley and they started running toward the hotel.

“They both ran down the same corridor and then a grenade went off in a really confined space.”

Policemen patrolling the beach in front of the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Sousse where tributes have been laid to the dead (AFP/Getty)

Describing how Mr Ruszkiewicz took most of the impact, Mr Murray said his daughter kept on running and added: “Further down, she ended up at a dead-end and that’s when he shot her in the legs at close range. And then he went along shooting other people in the head and legs.

“He was shooting women in the legs and men in the head and he stepped back over her a couple of times – but she played dead.”

After being killed by the police, the attacker, Mr Rezgui, was said to have used an AK-47 – but Ms Murray says she was shot at with a smaller handgun.

Mr Murray added: “Both her and her fiancé have said there was more than one gunman. One person is not capable of doing that much damage anyhow.”

The Daily Mail has also reported how another witness, a grandmother-of-three, said many other guests at the Imperial Marhaba hotel in Sousse are convinced there was a second gunman who burst into the reception area when the shooting started.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said that RAF planes are being deployed to bring casualties – and bodies – back to the UK.

He also confirmed that Home Secretary Theresa May will be visiting Tunisia later today to pay her condolences to the families who lost their loved ones and for talks on how to address extremist threat.