‘Running for our lives’ Yorkshire tourists caught up in Tunisia shooting

Britain is still coming to terms with the massacre which saw 18 people confirmed dead from the country, including two from Yorkshire.

A young couple from Leeds narrowly avoided the horror when gunman Seifeddine Rezgu went on a killing spree that left 39 people dead on Friday.

Hayden Disley, 19, and Frankie Clarke, 18, hid for more than two hours as shots rang out nearby.

Back at home in Leeds, Miss Clarke said: “I thought, I am going to die, I’m going to die. I thought he was in the hotel.”

Mr Disley said: “It still does not feel real. It is so sad for those people who died. It could easily have been us. We’re very lucky.”

Tennis coach Ellie Makin, who teaches in Harrogate but lives in Ripon, said she “expected to die” after she saw the man produce a gun from a beach parasol and start shooting at tourists.

Recalling her fear as she and others fled the armed attacker, the 22-year-old said: “He had an umbrella in his hand. Next minute he dropped this parasol and out came this gun.

“He started shooting. He mainly shot to the right-hand side. If he had shot to the left I don’t think we would have been here today.

“All I did was shout ‘run, there’s a gun’.”

Emerging once the danger had passed, Miss Makin said of witnessing the aftermath: “It was horrific. Seeing all this blood, all these bodies left right and centre.”

Grandparents Bernadette and Richard Paciukanis, who live in Halifax, were sunbathing just yards away when the terrorist struck on the beach at Sousse.

Mrs Paciukanis, 57, a sales advisor at the Halifax Argos store, and her husband were staying at the Imperial Marhaba hotel in the resort for her birthday treat.

Mr Paciukanis said: “I turned to my left and I saw the man, he was moving from left to right with the rifle in his hand. I just turned around and said ‘run, run, just get out of here, run’.”

In the midst of the massacre, the pair separated, but Mrs Paciukanis managed to make it to the foyer of the hotel. Neither of the couple knew if each was safe for some time.

“I can’t remember running and as I was going for the pool, I could hear him shooting behind me,” the grandmother-of-three added.

“From the pool to the foyer, there was lots of steps, I don’t know how I managed to get up them, I was feeling tired, but I thought ‘just keep going, just keep running’.”

Mrs Paciukanis managed to hide in a cloakroom with hotel staff members.

“I sat there and just waited and waited, I could hear the shooting and I could hear banging,” she said.