Death toll in Tunisia shooting attack at ancient synagogue rises to 4
Tunis, May 10 (EFE).- The death toll from a shooting attack at a famed synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba rose to four on Wednesday after another security guard succumbed to his wounds.
On Tuesday, a naval guard opened fire indiscriminately outside the 2,600-year-old Ghriba Synagogue during the last day of the annual pilgrimage to the oldest Jewish temple in North Africa, initially killing two pilgrims and a security guard, and injuring 10.
The attacker was also killed. According to preliminary information, he killed his colleague and seized his ammunition before the attack.
Two of the four victims killed during the attack were Israeli and French citizens, the foreign ministries of both countries confirmed.
The two pilgrims were cousins, identified as 30-year-old Aviel Haddad, an Israeli citizen living in Tunisia, and 42-year-old Benjamin from France.
Six security personnel, including the latest fatality, and four civilians that were wounded in the assault were taken to the nearest hospital.
In an interview with a local radio station, former tourism minister Rene Trabelsi said most pilgrims left the site before the attack, while those who were still in the compound hid inside.
Trabelsi added the attacker wore a bulletproof vest, which had made it difficult to “neutralize” him.
In 2002, a jihadist attack that Al Qaeda claimed targeted the same synagogue, leaving 21 dead.
Tunisia’s Jewish community has dwindled to about 1,000, from 100,000 in the 1940s, with most emigrating to France and Israel.EFE
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