Friday saw tragic scenes in the Tunisian seaside town of Sousse after a gunman, using an assault rifle, killed 38 beachgoers in a brutal assault.

The perpetrator is 23-year-old Seiffeddine Rezgui, an engineering student who lives about 80 kilometres to the south in a town called Gaafour. Whilst his family has claimed they were unaware that he held any extremist views it appears there were clues on his Facebook page. The Telegraph reports:

Notably, most of his radical postings appear to have started only early last year, prior to which he seemed to be more interested in rap music and sharing jokes. His final entry is New Year 2015, and read: “May God take me out of this unjust world and perish its people and make them suffer. They just remember you when they die.”

A large majority of those killed were British tourists soaking up the sun, with some media outlets reporting at least thirty of those killed were from the UK. Here’s Sky News with an account of the incident:

The shooter had his weapon concealed inside a sun umbrella – he basically came here, went into the water and washed,” [Sky correspondent Stuart] Ramsay said.

“Then he came out, he got his gun out.

“He was very, very calm – he then attacked one woman shooting her dead immediately.

He then shot other individuals we are told and began spraying into the beach area which had a lot of people.

He was shot dead by waiting police after he exited the street and walked up a side road, although the attack is said to have lasted at least half an hour before he was finally taken out.

It seems like being shot dead may have been an easy escape for this fool, perhaps a life spent behind bars in a far-flung prison may have been more fitting.

[sources:telegraph&sky]