Tunisia increasing security for foreign tourists

Tunis

Tunisia began deploying armed police to protect foreign tourists on Wednesday after last week's deadly jihadist attack on a beach resort, the interior ministry said.

Even though sources say that no increased security was visible at the tourist sites, a ministry spokesman said the deployment was beginning with hotels and seaside resorts."This morning, we started to deploy and armed police will be in hotels within the hour," spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui said.Security officials "are busy deploying at Hammamet," a seaside resort in the south of Tunis, he added.

Tunisia promised a raft of new security measures after last Friday's rampage in the resort of Port El Kantaoui, which killed 38 people, most of them British tourists. It said it would deploy 1,000 armed officers from Wednesday to reinforce the tourism police, who would also carry guns for the first time.

Local sources said that At the site of ancient Carthage outside Tunis on Wednesday morning, no police was seen  at the Antonine Baths and just one guard was deployed at the Carthage Museum. At the upmarket seaside resort of Gammarth, home to five hotels, security guards said they were aware of plans for a new deployment, but said no one had yet arrived.