'I don't know how I'm here': Survivors recall Tunisia terror attacks

On 25 June 2015, a gunman shot dead 38 people, including 30 Britons, in a Tunisian holiday resort.

Seifeddine Rezgui, a Tunisian student, opened fire on tourists staying in Port El Kantaoui, just north of Sousse, in an attack for which the jihadist group Islamic State claimed responsibility.

Rezgui was shot dead by police shortly afterwards but his actions shocked the world and changed lives for ever.

Ten years on, survivors of the massacre have been recalling their horrific experiences and reflecting on how it changed their lives.

Holidaymakers Christine and Stuart Cullen, from Lowestoft, Suffolk, were caught up in the attack.

Mrs Cullen remembers it clearly.

"He [Rezgui] threw a bomb with nails and things and then I looked up and I saw Stuart and, unfortunately, a piece of metal from the bomb had severed his artery. He bled out in my hands."

Mr Cullen was killed. Already hit by shrapnel, Mrs Cullen thought she was going to be next.

"He [Rezgui] came up to me, probably only a few feet away, pointed and shot. so I threw myself back and thought this was it.

"Then I suddenly realised that actually I hadn't been hit... then I played dead and watched him go off.

"I shouldn't be here - I don't know how I'm here, but I shouldn't be here. At the inquest, there were two statements that say they saw him shoot me.

"I actually say I was saved for two reasons: to plan my daughter's wedding and look after my grandchildren."

She says the attack has given her a new outlook on life.

"If anything, I live in the moment more now. I am more appreciative of things now, and if there's an opportunity to go and do something I haven't done before, why not? You feel a bit invincible, really."

Mrs and Mrs Cullen's daughter, Emma-Jayne Herbert, was at home in Lowestoft at the time of the attack.

"When I got the call - it was off a family member - I just knew I'd lost one of them, and I had a feeling it was Dad," she says.

A decade on, she is now expecting her first child - and her parents' first grandchild - two years after her mum gave her away at her wedding.

And although her dad was not physically there, she says she felt his presence.

"There was this rain that came over that almost felt like maybe his tears, and then it just washed away after 10 minutes.

"The wedding started a little bit late and the sunshine just beamed out as I was coming down the aisle, and it just felt like 'Yeah, that's my dad.'"

They are holding a family festival in her dad's memory at The Plough, Blundeston, on Saturday in aid of Nelson's Journey, a charity that supports bereaved children.

"He'd be very proud that we're not just sitting in a hole in darkness, that we are coming together with others in our family and... remembering the good and being positive. He would definitely be very happy and proud with that."

Allison and Phil Heathcote, from Felixstowe, Suffolk, had been in Tunisia, celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary.

Mrs Heathcote describes the day of the attacks as "the worst day of my life, and a living nightmare".

She says: "I would say, probably within about five minutes of it starting, we'd both been shot.

"I tried to see if Phil was alive but he wasn't responding and there were just people all around you, dead."

With the gunman on the rampage, she laid still in the sand, despite having been shot five times.

"Most of my injuries were in my right arm; also my stomach. I've got another one just underneath the breast there and I've also still got another bullet still in me."

Mr Heathcote, a cricket lover, was killed in the attack and a memorial match in his honour is being held at Felixstowe and Corinthians Cricket Club on 10 August.

It will raise money for Fisher House, which provided accommodation for Mrs Heathcote's family while she was in hospital in Birmingham after the attack.

Despite her horrific experiences, she considers herself lucky.

"I've still got my son, and he means the world to me, and I've still got the rest of my family," she says.

"I didn't want to die. I'm glad I'm still here, but I wish [my husband] was here, too."

Andy and Nicki Duffield, from Watton, Norfolk, were in Tunisia to celebrate Mr Duffield's birthday.

They took refuge in a gardener's shed while the attacks took place.

"I hid behind a door with an aerosol spray and a pair of garden shears," he recalls.

"I thought, 'If someone's coming through that door, at least I'm going to go with a fight.' You know, we survived it but a lot of people didn't.

"Yeah, we were lucky. A lot of nice people lost their lives there that day."

Mrs Duffield remembers running and hiding for her life.

"The terror, the fear - you really did think that was your last day," she says.

She credits her husband with saving her life by encouraging her to keep running and by asking the gardeners to hide them in their shed.

"We knew that the gunfire was getting closer and closer. Andy was shouting at me to keep running, and at one point I told him to just go and to leave me and he wouldn't."

The couple are defiant and say they will not let their experiences stop them from continuing to holiday abroad.

"If it wasn't for my husband, I wouldn't be here. It's changed my life completely," says Mrs Duffield.

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