UK toll in Tunisia confirmed at 30

The beach near the RIU Imperial Marhaba hotel in Sousse, Tunisia, as the bodies of more Britons killed in the Tunisian beach massacre will be flown back to the UK.

Eight Britons killed in the terror attack were brought back to British soil today.

Bruce Wilkinson, from Goole, Claire Windass, from Hull, and Chris and Sharon Bell, from Leeds, were among the 38 people killed by gunman Seifeddine Rezgui in the resort of Sousse last Friday.

Another eight victims were repatriated today. The flight to Brize Norton air base in Oxfordshire carried the remains of Lisa and William Graham, Philip Heathcote, Trudy Jones, Ann and James McQuire, Janet and John Stocker, and David Thompson, the Foreign Office said.

Bereaved relatives gathered at the air base to watch their coffins arrive.

Further flights are scheduled today and tomorrow to repatriate the remaining 13 victims.

A minute’s silence will be held across the country at noon today – a week after the incident .

Civic leaders will gather in reflection at Victoria Gardens in Leeds.

Lord Mayor of Leeds, Coun Judith Chapman, called on the city’s residents to unite in silent tribute.

“I would ask for everyone in Leeds to pause at 12 noon to pay our respects to the victims from our city and country,” she said.

York’s Guildhall is open for a second candlelit vigil from 11.30am to 2.30pm.

Flags will be flown at half-mast over Whitehall departments and Buckingham Palace.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said yesterday that the total number of British victims was unlikely to rise beyond the 30 identified so far, as Defence Secretary Michael Fallon vowed that those responsible for the massacre would be “tracked down”.

Mr Fallon told the House of Commons: “We are working with the Tunisian authorities to find out exactly how this outrage last Friday was carried out, how it was planned, who was involved in it.

“Let the House be in absolutely no doubt, the people who perpetrated the murders of our constituents are going to be tracked down, whether they are in Libya, in Syria or anywhere else.”

The Tunisian government has arrested 12 accomplices believed to have helped Rezgui carry out the atrocity. According to Tunisian officials, the gunman trained at a Libyan jihadist camp at the same time as the two gunmen who attacked the Bardo museum in Tunis in March, killing 22.

Once all the bodies have been returned a single inquest covering all the British victims will be opened in London.