Tunisia terror attack: Blood of victims 'stained beach colour of terracotta' says British survivor

A British survivor of the Tunisia gun attack has told how blood from the victims of the massacre turned the sand to the colour of terracotta.

Cal Sarwar flew back to Glasgow today after being in Sousse, where he was researching a book on Islamic terrorism in Africa.

The 50-year-old journalist from Falkirk had been staying in a neighbouring hotel when student Seifeddine Rezgui targeted western tourists on the beach area of the RIU Imperial Marhaba and the RIU Bellevue.

Mr Sarwar had been swimming in a pool just metres away from the scene, when he thought he heard fireworks.

But when he came up from under the water, he saw "pandemonium" with panicked holidaymakers running past.

He recalled, "I was in the pool, I wasn't on the beach, the pool is about 25 metres from the beach.

"I swim with earplugs in, so I was swimming away and when I put my head up I saw people running past. The gunman had already run past by the time I put my head up out of the water.

"That was it, people screaming, pandemonium, chaos."

He added, "I was there writing my second book and it's ironic that this was happening."

Mr Sarwar said, "I heard something, I heard fireworks, from what I was told the guy had a Kalashnikov, he had reloaded several times.

"He went past me, I was told, I didn't see him.

"We went to the beach and it was a terracotta colour, the blood had mixed with the sand, it was just terracotta everywhere, like somebody had been painting. People were dragging people out of the water, it was quite a horrible scene.

"When you see something like that you just don't expect it. I'm shocked and I will be for a long time."

He said there had been a heightened security presence in the area in the days before the attack, but said it had been scaled back just the day before.

"Four days before the attack the whole atmosphere on the streets of Tunisia changed," Mr Sarwar said.

"Instead of taxis taking you right to your hotel doors they would drop you off at the gates, there were police blocks at the gates. But that security presence disappeared on Thursday afternoon. On Thursday afternoon we were allowed once again to take our taxis and get dropped off at the hotels again."

He added, "They were preparing for something, but I don't think they expected it to come from the water."