Tunisian policeman kills five in synagogue shooting spree

DJERBA, Tunisia: Tunisian authorities were on Wednesday investigating a shooting spree by a police officer that claimed five lives and sparked mass panic during a Jewish pilgrimage at Africa´s oldest synagogue.

Security forces threw a tight cordon around the site on Djerba island as officials probed whether Tuesday´s shootings were a random killing spree or an anti-Semitic terrorist attack.

The police officer first killed a colleague and took his ammunition, then went to the Ghriba synagogue and opened fire, sparking terror on the final day of the annual pilgrimage. Wearing his uniform and a bulletproof vest, he shot dead two visitors and injured two more. In the ensuing gun battle, he also wounded six police officers, two of whom later died, hospital sources said.

The assailant was then shot dead himself, the interior ministry said, without identifying him. “Without the rapid intervention of the security forces, there would have been wider carnage” because hundreds of people were at the site, said Rene Trabelsi, a former tourism minister, speaking on Mosaique FM radio.