SCOTS tourists have described how they ran for their lives as at least 37 people, including at least 15 Britons, were killed in a terrorist gun attack at a Tunisian seaside resort.

And Foreign Minister Tobias Ellwood says the death toll "may well rise" adding that it is "the most significant terrorist attack on the British people" since July 7, 2005

The carnage took place at a beach close to dozens of hotels packed with holidaymakers from across Europe at Sousse, about 90 miles south of the capital Tunis.

One attacker had brought a Kalashnikov rifle out under a parasol before gunning down the victims. He was shot dead by security services.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: "We have to assume that a high proportion of those killed and injured will have been British".

The first victim to be named was Irish nurse Lorna Carty, a mother of two aged in her 50s from Co Meath. Her husband, who was not on the beach with her, escaped unhurt.

Among those caught up in the shooting was Darren McCullagh, from Barrhead, East Renfrewshire, who together with his girlfriend fled from the beach and hid in their hotel room after spotting a gunman roaming the beach.

His mother Moya said he told her there had been "bodies everywhere".

She added: "He is in a room and he has no idea what's going on. He's with his girlfriend and they're in some kind of laundry room keeping quiet."

David Fleming and his partner Diane Boyd described how they were lying on a beach in front of the El Mouradi Palm Marina hotel, close to the Imperial Marhaba Hotel which was targeted, when they heard gun fire around midday.

"We were lying on our sunbeds when there was a sudden onset of gunfire," said Ms Boyd, 49, a nurse, from East Kilbride. "David thought it was firecrackers, but I knew immediately it was gunfire. We both sat up and it was obvious something very wrong was going on.

"There were a lot of people running from our left across us. We just got up and ran with them and kept running until we were in the hotel reception. It was terrifying."

Mr Fleming, from Coatbridge, said he saw a woman struggling to push a buggy with a small child through the sand and helped them get to safety.

"We started to run and there were children there too," he said. "I remember one woman was pushing a pram. She had a very small kid in it. She was trying to push it through the sand and was struggling. I helped her and others were helping too."

The couple reached the safety of the hotel and watched the situation from their balcony as armed police, paramedics and coastguards converged on the area.

Maggie Crawshaw, 60, and partner Jal Burt, of Comrie, Fife, were sunbathing the Royal Kenz, next to the Imperial Marhaba Hotel, when the gunfire started.

Ms Crawshaw, 60, said: "I heard what I thought was fireworks. Jal thought it was machine gun fire. It was quiet for about 30 seconds and it started again. Jal said, 'That's gunfire, run. Everyone was running up from the beach through a short corridor between our hotel and the Imperial Marhaba where the gunmen had advanced and were randomly shooting people on their sunbeds."

Reports said a second attacker had been arrested. The pair may have come ashore in a rubber dinghy.

The shooting took place at about the same time as a terrorist attack on a gas factory, in Grenoble, France, in which a man was beheaded.

A further 25 worshippers were killed in a shooting at a Kuwait mosque.

It came after the Islamic State (Isil) urged its fanatic followers to 'make Ramadan a month of calamities' and rise up against the 'non-believers'. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Kuwait incident, but the affiliation of the other attackers remained unclear.

Tour operator Barrhead Travel has offered Scots caught up in the Tunisia shooting a chance to fly home early. "If they longer want to fly out to Tunisia we are giving them the chance to chance their preferred destination," said a spokeswoman.

One report said a 16-year-old British boy survived after seeing his parents and grandmother killed.

Matthew James, 30, from Pontypridd, south Wales, was shot in the chest as he protected his partner Saera Wilson.

Ms Wilson, 26, said: "He took a bullet for me. He was covered in blood from the shots, but he just told me to run away.

"He told me: 'I love you babe. But just go - tell our children that their daddy loves them'.

"It was the bravest thing I've ever known. But I just had to leave him under the sunbed because the shooting just kept on coming.

"I ran back, past bodies on the beach to reach our hotel. It was chaos - there was a body in the hotel pool and it was just full of blood."

Tunisians, Germans and Belgians are thought to be among the other nationalities killed.

The Scottish Government said there were closely monitoring "the horrifying situation."