The tour operator TUI could now be facing legal action from the families of the victims of the terror attack on a Tunisian beach in 2015, which saw 30 British people killed.
According to The Australian, lawyers are planning civil proceedings against tour operator, TUI, after a coroner conducting inquests into those killed deemed the tourists were unlawfully killed.
The attack saw Tunisia declare a state of emergency, while tourists quickly fled the country and MSC Cruises and a number of hotels pulled their presence from Tunisia.
But Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith ruled against the finding of “neglect” on TUI’s part, along with the owners of the Riu Imperial Marhaba, which was where the beach attack took place.
The families of the victims were critical of the hotel’s security, and also believed TUI was complacent in its ‘duty’ to warn travellers about the dangers of Tunisia, which had suffered a previous terrorist attack in capital Tunis three months prior, and claimed the lives of a number of tourists, including those disembarking from MSC cruise ships.
Representation for 22 families of the victims, Kylie Hutchison, who works for law firm Irwin Mitchell, said they had heard “shocking evidence about the level of security precautions at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel at the time of the terrorist attack”.
“It is now crucial that the whole travel industry learns from what happened in Sousse to reduce the risk of similar catastrophic incidents in the future,” she said, per The Oz.
“On behalf of our clients … we will now be preparing to commence civil proceedings against TUI.”
The inquest also heard that one holidayer had quizzed their travel agent on the earlier attack at the Bardo Museum, and were told it was a “one-off” and that the Sousse beach destination was “100 per cent safe”.
But, per The Oz, a Thomson travel agent had previously made statements in the inquest saying she would never give a destination a complete safety guarantee.
