Summary

  • At least 19 people including 17 tourists are killed after gunmen target the Bardo museum in central Tunis

  • Polish, Italian, Spanish, German and Tunisian citizens are among those killed

  • Prime Minister Habib Essid says there were up to five attackers and that 22 tourists and two Tunisians were injured

  • Parliament has now been evacuated and the bulk of the operation is now reported to be over

  • However the security forces are continuing to combing Tunis for more attackers, Mr Essid says

Live Reporting

Farouk Chothia and Roland Hughes

  1. Tunis-based Shems FM is now also reporting that two assailants are dead and that the operation is over.

  2. Tunisia's Mosaique FM now reports that the security force operation is over and two gunmen are dead.

  3. Tunisia's Al Chourouk newspaper reports that seven of the dead are German, and one is Tunisian.

  4. Farouk told World Have Your Say: "I was next to it. I heard it but didn't know at that moment what it was. Police said to us to go far from this place. My friend called and said there was shooting."

  5. British, Italian, French and Spanish nationals are among the hostages taken, Tunisia's privately owned Mosaique FM radio station reports.

  6. Farouk was on his way to meet his friend at the time, so he called him and realised he was inside the museum. His friend is safe with the police inside the museum.

    Tunisian security forces secure the area after gunmen attacked Tunis" famed Bardo Museum on March 18, 2015Getty Images

  7. The BBC's World Have Your Say radio programme has been speaking to a Tunisian blogger, Farouk Afi, who was next to the museum when the attack started. You can listen to his interview here.

  8. Speaking in Brussels, the French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, says: "I condemn this terrorist attack in the strongest terms. There has been a hostage-taking, without doubt tourists have been affected, killed."

  9. People in Tunisia are tweeting that the country's main television networks are running live images showing the evacuation of the Bardo Museum.

    Twitter image showing evacuation of Bardo Museum in Tunis - March 18, 2015Twitter

  10. Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi tweets that he will address the nation later this afternoon.

  11. Poland's foreign ministry says three Poles are among the wounded.

  12. An official at the Italian foreign ministry in Rome says two Italians have been wounded in the attack, but it is unclear clear whether they were among the hostages, Reuters news agency reports.

    Tunisian security forces secure the area after gunmen attacked Tunis" famed Bardo Museum on March 18, 2015.Getty Images

  13. Here is a map of the area where the attacks have taken place - you can see just how close the Parliament building and the Pardo museum are to each other.

    Map of Tunis - March 18, 2015Google

  14. For anyone following the events in Tunis on Twitter, the hashtags to follow seem to be #BardoAttack and #AttaqueBardo

  15. The UK government says there is no official news of any UK casualties or hostages in Tunis. Its consular staff are making urgent enquiries.

  16. Chems FM also says 21 people have been admitted to hospital in central Tunis.

  17. State television says two armed men rammed their car into the parliament building and opened fire.

  18. Tunis-based radio station Chems FM says a number of people have been freed from the museum by security forces in the last few minutes.

  19. Interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui told reporters there were eight victims, including seven foreigners.

  20. Amelie Tulet, a journalist with the French-language RFI network, tweets: "According to an official source, after being unable to attack Parliament, the two assailants headed to the museum instead."