THE first victims of the Tunisia terror attack will be repatriated tomorrow, Downing Street has announced.
The sensitive process of bringing home what could be as many as 30 people is expected to take a number of days to complete.
The UK Government expects some of the families will take up its offer of help with the repatriation; those who do will see their loved ones returned home via RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
It came as Police Scotland confirmed the identities of four people from Scotland killed in the terrorist incident in Tunisia on Friday. They are James McQuire, 66, and his wife Anne, 63, from Cumbernauld, and Billy Graham, 51, and his wife Lisa, 50, from Bankfoot, near Perth. Speaking after chairing a Scottish Government resilience meeting on the incident, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "My deepest condolences go to the families and friends of James and Anne McQuire from Cumbernauld and Billy and Lisa Graham from Bankfoot following official confirmation that they were killed in the terrorist atrocity that unfolded in Tunisia on Friday. "The Scottish Government, Police Scotland and our partners will continue to do everything we possibly can to provide support to their families and everyone else affected by this incident as they return to Scotland from Tunisia. "Both families have requested that their privacy is respected at this incredibly difficult time and I would ask that they are given the appropriate time to grieve in private."
David Cameron's spokeswoman made clear the UK Government was in close touch with the Scottish Government and the families regarding the repatriation of the Scottish victims.
She explained returning the victims to their loved ones was likely to involve a number of stages as there would be a single investigation into the deaths of the British victims overseen by the West London coroner.
"We are in discussion with the Scottish Government and the families about how this process works," said the spokeswoman, stressing that all the victims would receive the "full respect they deserve" during the repatriation process.
No 10 confirmed that there were now 22 British victims based on positive identification; a further nine are believed to be British. Work is on-going with the Tunisian authorities to confirm fully the identities of the other nine.
All the injured, thought to number around 35, have now been returned to the UK; including four of the more seriously injured, who were medically evacuated by the RAF. They are undergoing treatment in hospitals in Birmingham, Oxford, Plymouth and London. It is thought at least one person has life-threatening injuries.
As well as the national minute's silence on Friday at noon, a week on precisely from the terror attack in Sousse, Downing Street confirmed that all UK Government buildings will fly their flags at half-mast on that day as a sign of respect; Buckingham Palace also intends to fly the royal standard at half-mast too.
The Prime Minister, who along with Home Secretary Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, briefed Cabinet colleagues on the latest developments, had talks this morning with his Irish counterpart, Enda Kenny; three Irish nationals were also killed in the terror attack.
No 10 explained that, apart from the repatriation, the UK Government's focus was now two-fold; firstly, on offering security expertise to the Tunisians and, secondly, supporting its important tourism industry. Tunis fears that the terror attack could wipe hundreds of millions of pounds from its all-import tourism sector. Some 1000 armed guards are now patrolling all of the country's coastal hotels.
Mr Hammond will chair a further meeting of Whitehall's Cobra committee later today.
Foreign Office Minister Tobias Ellwood has remained in Tunisia for more security meetings with the local authorities. There are now some 27 UK experts from the Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence and police in the north African country working on security issues.
Tunisian authorities have said they believe the gunman, 23-year-old student Seifeddine Rezgui - who was shot dead by police following the beach massacre - acted alone but had help planning the attack. One theory is that the gunman was part of a Libyan IS cell.
Local media reports suggested one of seven suspects being detained is a flatmate of the gunman.
There are also claims that there was a second gunman involved in the beach massacre but this is, as yet, unconfirmed.
In a Commons statement yesterday, the Prime Minister told MPs Britain and the West had to confront the IS evil "with everything we have got" and that there was a need to "crush" the extremists in Iraq and Syria but accepted this could not be done by military means alone and was a generational struggle.
Since the attack at a hotel in Sousse some 10,000 British tourists have flown home.
The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice to warn that further terrorist attacks in Tunisia are possible and have urged people to be vigilant but it has not advised against travel to the coastal areas.
Meantime, hundreds of armed police, 400 regular soldiers and members of the special forces are today taking part in a major two-day counter-terrorism exercise, the biggest ever seen in Britain, in preparation for a so-called "marauding attack" in the UK capital.
It has been planned for months and is in response to the Charlie Hebdo terror attack in Paris in January.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article