On Tuesday, a Tunisian naval guard shot and killed a colleague and two civilians as he tried to reach a synagogue on the Mediterranean island of Djerba during an annual Jewish pilgrimage, the Tunisian Interior Ministry reported.
The attacker was slain by security guards, and 10 people were injured.The motive for the attack was under investigation. Djerba, a picturesque island off the southern coast of Tunisia, is home to the North African country’s main Jewish community.
The civilians killed were French and Tunisian, according to the Tunisian Foreign Ministry. It was not immediately clear if they were pilgrims attending ceremonies at the 2,500-year-old Ghriba temple, one of Africa's oldest synagogues.
The interior ministry reported that those injured included six security agents and four civilians. It did not specify how they were wounded or whether they were all shot by the attacker, who was not publicly identified.
According to the ministry, the assailant, a guard affiliated with the National Guard naval center in the port town of Aghir on Djerba, first killed a colleague with his service weapon and then seized ammunition and headed toward the Ghriba synagogue.
Videos circulating online showed panic-stricken visitors running while gunshots rang out.
The attack occurred during an annual pilgrimage that attracts thousands of visitors from around the world to Djerba.
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