Tunisian Interior Ministry Warned of Attack Threat Prior to Sousse Shooting

The Tunisian Interior Ministry reportedly was informed of a coming attack before the shooting in Sousse.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Tunisian Interior Ministry was informed of a coming attack before the shooting in the northeastern resort town of Sousse took the lives of 40 tourists, The Independent reports.

The ministry received a report on official wiretaps of terrorism-linked individuals in Sousse in June, Walid Zarrouk, a former senior prison guard and the head of Mourakeb, a non-government organization which monitors security officials, told the newspaper on Friday.

The officer who submitted the report heard an individual saying he was planning to "burn a car" (a code for ordering an attack), in one of the wiretaps, according to The Independent.

"When the attack happened in June, and we have some information since May, something isn’t working," Zarrouk told the newspaper, explaining the lack of a response to the warning with a general state of "anarchy" and corruption within the interior ministry.

On June 26, a gunman, later identified as Seifeddine Rezgui, walked down a beach in Sousse fatally shooting nearly 40 holidaymakers, most of them British tourists, with an automatic rifle. A further 40 people were injured. The gunman was shot dead by police at the site.

ISIL jihadist group has claimed responsibility for the attack.