criticized in the past for going in rather heavy handedly at times, but they are going to have to treat this very carefully. >> okay. thank you very much indeed. you are watching al jazeera. it is coming up to 1300 hours gmt. and the bardo national museum is under attack in the capitol tunis. eight people have been killed seven foreigners, one tunisian. we hear from the interior ministry spokesman who said that there were two gunmen who were still holding a number of people hostage inside of the museum. the museum is located just five minutes away from tunisia's parliament, which has been evacuated, and we understand from guests who we were speaking to earlier, that they had been debating a bill -- a law on

terrorism. not clear whether this incident is related. all we know for now is two gunmen are holding hostages inside the bardo national museum. let's bring in a tunisian blogger and political analyst. joes good to have you with us. there are still a lot of questions that remain to be answered, can you tell us what your reaction is to this? >> i would say tunisia was expecting, but not realistically expecting it. because we -- we had a lot of threats that extremist groups were planning to attack civilians, were planning to attack tourist facilities in tunisia, but this didn't really happen over the last four years,

and we all know that in 2011, security was not that -- it was expected. people decided the situation was more or less under control, and frankly no one expected something so -- i could say so big. because this is the most important terrorist attack that happened in tunisia's modern history. we had attacks on the military in -- in -- in a military area but not on civilian targets. not something this big and certainly not something involving any foreigners. >> indeed. the -- i -- i know it's very early days to speculate. but who do you think could be behind this joseph.

>> i think isis is the main group. we have seen their activities growing over the last few years, and so they are -- they are the main -- the main -- the main ones accused of doing something like this. we actually have been following their social media, and they have been praising this action and they have been actually warning that something big would happen in tunisia soon because, you know, this is -- we have the independent state of tunisia in two days on march 20th. so now when you drive or walk around tunisia, you have tunisia [ inaudible ] all around and the isis created group -- the local stamp of isis has been attacking the idea of the nation

state. so i think this looks very much like an isis attack. >> we still don't know that at this point. that is speculation. as you can see helicopters circling above the museum and counter terrorist forces are said to be surrounding the museum in tunis. nazanine is here with us. they claim they have handled the aftermath of the arab spring bather than many in the region. and a lot has been going on in libya recently. could we have anticipated that they would have been dragged into the chaos as well? >> i mean one of the reasons why tunisia's revolution wasn't

violent in the same way, is because it doesn't have the same history of violence doesn't have the sectarian divide like other countries. it's a small, tiny country. . it is not that rich or powerful. it has been playing a very neutral role. it has consulates both in tobruk and tripoli, it has good diplomatic relations with both sides in that conflict at the moment. but one thing it hasn't been able to get a handle on is the fact that so many tunisians have been heading to iraq and syria to fight against bashar al-assad initially, but now more for isil. your political analyst mentioned

isil. people linked to isil actually praising what has happened in tunisia. there are armed groups either linked to al-sharia, or fighters who have been trained in libya or iraq and syria linked to isil. i'm sure the tunisian authorities will be looking at those kinds of capabilities when they are looking at who is responsible for this. >> there are said to be two gunmen inside the museum. we heard from the interior ministry spokesman just a few moments ago. it's early, but given that we don't know much we can't help but speculate. the isil link -- you mentioned that a lot of tunisians had left to go fight in iraq and syria. why is this given as you said the religious makeup is very

different from other other -- countries in the region are. >> that's the big question. but you are seeing it in libya, britain, france the netherlands. i think in tunisia in particular i have spoke to people who have come back from tunisia and have fought in iraq and syria, and part of the reason that some of these young people go is because they feel they have no opportunities of finding work of having a life in tunisia. one in five young people are out of work right now. >> uh-huh. >> that's one of the reasons. also you have got to remember for years, for decades tunisians who were religious those two

prayed five times a day and grew beards were prosecuted under the former president. prisoned and tortured thousands of tunisians. and the main power was banned -- >> but then they made it to power shortly after the revolution. >> yes and it was a difficult period for them. but in more recent years there has been criticism of the ministry of interior for not doing more to prevent people from leaving the country to go to turkey and then into syria and iraq. >> all right. these are live pictured of outside of the museum in tunis, whereas you can see security forces are standing by. a heavy security presence

outside of this museum as two gunmen remain inside holding a number of people hostage. you can see some of them on the roof top there of the building and then some -- some -- also outside of the building in front of the building itself. the -- we are still seeing people come out of this building. we saw earlier a man being escorted out. so it is a very fluid situation. we don't know how many people are inside or how well the two gunmen are armed. but this is a very difficult situation for the tunisian forces to handle because they haven't dealt with a situation in a very very long time. >> we have seen something similar to this in westgate in kenya. >> right. >> in paris more recently.

and the tunisians have contingency plans. but at the moment we don't know whether these two gunmen have other types of weapons on them. and whether they could pose a direct threat to those hostages. the tunisians will have to tread very, very carefully, and try to work out what exactly these two attackers, if there are two or more, have inside the museum and how they managed -- they are managing to -- >> how secure is this museum? sorry to interrupt you. it is not from the parliament building, but is it easy to get into. ? >> it is very easy to get into many of tunisia's tourist sites.

there are many roman and ancient sites across the area. >> two ambulances coming out of the museum building there. a number of people -- perhaps injured. what we know is that eight people have been killed seven of them foreigners and one tunisian. a fluid, ongoing situation. the interior spokesman saying that forces were being deployed inside of the museum and the gunmen were still holding a number of people hostage. we saw a picture earlier of what looked like hostages inside of the museum. people sitting on the floor there. not sure when this picture was taken, whether some of these people have managed to make it out, or whether they have in fact been killed.

we don't know that at this stage, but, again, this is one of the first pictures from inside the museum that came in to us here at al jazeera. we are now going to be speaking to amean galley who is the program director at the democracy transition center. thank you for speaking to us. what is -- when you look at these pictures of the museum and the heavy security presence there, what is your initial reaction? did you expect such a thing to happen in tunisia? >> no one expected such thing to happen in tunisia. especially since the attacks were targeting young civilians. the first such attack. these enemies of the state are targeting civilians.

not only tunisian civilians, but also our guests in the museum. >> right. it is quite significant and symbolic that the museum is being attacked. this museum of course is not very far from the parliament building of the tunisian parliament. we understand that parliament parliamentaryians have now been vak indicated. >> could there be a link between what is going on in parliament and what we're seeing outside of the museum today. >> since the museum is close to the parliament building my opinion is the enemies of the state have not been targeting

the parliament. because this law has been discussed for the past few weeks. it has only happened at the museum, because the museum is one of the symbols of the state, or the buildings of tourism in tunisia. we saw what other enemies did in other regions of the globe. they -- they were targeting monuments in syria and iraq. it looked like there is a continuation of ideology targeting the state, targeting the history, targeting the history of man kind. >> when you say enemies of the state, who do you think these enemies of the state are? are they people from within tunisia or from outside? >> well probably would be

people from within tunisia, to be able to infiltrate the security system and get all the way to the gate of the museum. but these are actually international terrorists. this is a group that hate tunisia, but also they hate libya, syria, iraq france norway. these are people targeting human kind, who need to be addressed as enemies of human kind. not just enemies of tunisia. >> thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us. he was on the line there from tunis. it is now 1315 gmt, if you are just joining us here on al jazeera, the events moving quickly in tunisia's capitol tunis. let's take you through the key

developments of the last hour or so. gunmen have attacked the museum in tunis. eight people have been killed seven are foreigners and the interior ministry says more hostages are being held inside of the museum. security forces have also surrounded the building and four policemen are said to be injured. our correspondent who is based in tunisia normally but is here in doha with us. this is unprecedented for tunisia, despite the chaos is neighboring countries, tunisia until now had been spared. >> in terms of targeting foreigners in this way at a key tourist location in tunisia, this is unheard of. there were two political

assassinations of politicians in 2013. that at the time and recently was linked to groups linked to al-sharia. there is speculation -- it is speculation that this attacks off of the back of a killing of a man on saturday. he is one of tunisia's most wanted men. there is a link between him and the assassination of one of those politicians that i mentioned in 2013. now he is linked to al-sharia, but more recently linked to groups affiliated with isil fighting in and around sirte. but what we heard from amean who is a democracy advocate in

tunisia, he mentioned bardo museum. it has one of the most precious mosaic collections of roman mosaics in the world, and we have seen what has been happening -- >> in syria. >> exactly. >> in the last few weeks, and you can't help but draw a link between this and what happened in syria. >> exactly. i can only imagine what tunisians are feeling right now, because they have never seen this kind of attack in their history. >> all right. let's bring in a journalist on the line from tunis, she is at the scene. give us a sense of what is happening out there. what is security presence like? >> there is a very high security

presence. the roads are blocked off, but there's lots of people standing outside, and there is several helicopters flying over the museum obviously trying to get more of a grasp of what is happening inside. >> okay. we have seen and we're still seeing ambulances coming out of -- of the museum there. do -- do you get a sense of whether there are injured people being taken out? we have heard of a number of police officers being injured. >> yes, it is hard to tell but there are definitely ambulances going in and out. yes, but it is hard to tell exactly how many people have been injured at this stage. >> the forces that are being deployed there, where exactly are they? we saw one man of the roof top. where else? are they all over surrounding the museum.

>> yeah at the spot that i'm out, there is a brigade with at least -- about 15 police officers standing. the road coming in has been cordoned off for a while as well. so the whole area is full of police, really. >> do you know whether or not the police have been able to go inside the museum? >> i'm not sure yet. it's very hard to tell. i believe -- i would believe that they -- that they have got them inside the outer wall at least, and they are trying to get a better -- to try to corner the gunmen. >> right. >> i can't tell from where i am. >> we're seeing more ambulances go inside the museum grounds there. jasmine are other people curious about what is happening there?

or have they set up a perimeter around the museum preventing people from getting closer? >> they are stopping cars from going in and out, but there are pedestrians, really a crowd gathering as well as people seem very curious. they want to know what is happening. and as nothing like this has happened before so it's a big shock to everybody. >> okay. i believe we have a good l map now of the museum in knew advertise. there is the museum five minutes away from it is the parliament building which has been evacuated. a number of people also evacuate from the museum itself but many remain inside. and it seems there is probably some sort of negotiation -- we

don't know if it has started yet -- but it is likely to happen between the hostage takers and the authorities there. >> this is interest varying, varying -- very interesting, because we saw this in paris. i believe the attackers will have access to social media. they will want to keep quiet about their plans for possible way of getting in and getting the tourists out of that museum. yes, it has been surrounded as jasmine mentioned there. we understand the presidential guard as well as other security forces are involved in this operation. tu nia, although it doesn't have experience with these kinds of situations, they have had

experience with attacks carried out on their police stations. they have been fighting on the libyan border. >> right. >> but they do not have experience of this kind of hostage situation. and it's unclear, really from this photograph whether these people have been told by security to stay put or whether someone is keeping them in the room. >> exactly. we don't know what this picture depicts really. there has been a military operation earlier this month by the tunisian military. what was that about? who was the target during that military operation? >> there are groups -- armed groups, as i mentioned which are linked to al-qaeda and also to

al-sharia, and possibly after mill lated to isil in libya as well. which are using tunisia as almost like a weapons depot, or a training ground. and the military and the police have been attacked not only in the mountains on the nigerian border but also further inland. there have been a number of deaths. the tunisia ans recently say they arrested 32 people. they took weaponry grenades rpg's and they have found in the

last two weeks stockpiles of weapons, which they believe would have been used in a potentially attack. that is all in the south of the country, foley. and arrange the country in tunisia it is very difficult to get around without check points. everywhere you go you are going to encounter a checking point. >> this is not in tunis? >> in tunis as well. so it's a very heavily controlled country. some would say the police still have a lot of pow ere. but the ministry of interior and the police say they need to secure the country from these threats. >> and yet you mentioned earlier that getting into this museum is

quite osi. >> it is easy. and many touristic sites around the country have been so unsecured that there has been left thes of ancient artifacts. it's a big big business in tunisia. i would say this is probably one of the most popular in the arab world for what it shows, which are mosaics dating back to roman times, probably would not have been secured. despite its proximity to parliament. >> we are seeing more people running out of the building. okay. to are not live pictures. those were people that came out a few moments ago. you mentioned a man earlier.

you mentioned the man that was killed in libya not long ago. how does he play into this. >> we heard on saturday that one of tunisia's most wanted men, who was wanted for the killing of a politician back in 2011. he was killed in libya on saturday. there were links between him and the outlawed group, al-sharia, but at the time of the killing, it was believed he was one of the commanders of an affiliated isil group in libya. it would be very interesting if

there was a connection between this man and this incident here. bardo, but of course it's very very early days at the moment. this is just speculation. i think a lot of people are looking for potential links, trying to understand what has happened? why now? is it the fact this bardo museum has artifacts dating back to the roman times, or is it linked to this particular killing in sirte in libya on saturday. >> before the election in december, some said the president represented less of a break with the old system and, you know, that his coming to power was basically a disguised return of the old guard. how will this new government react to this do you think? >> i think we have to remember that although he is president

and nita tunis won the most seats in parliament nita tunis is ruling in coalition. in that coalition -- it's not ruling on its own. yes, there have been some figures from the old regime who have resurfaced reappeared people who have been released from jail and people who were supposed to face justice, and they didn't. yes, it had been particularly slow to bring about justice, those who committed crimes of torture, during 21 years of dictatorship to justice, but at the same time tunisia is ruling with a coalition government. nita tunis is part of that government. but there are other people in

that government who are not affiliated to any particular party or side of the political spectrum in tunisia. but there has been talk about the polarization in tunisia. there are thoses that want morris lam involved in the day-to-day running in tunisia. >> if you are just joining us we are continuing to watch developments out of the tunisiian capitol tunis. let's take you through what we know at this stage. gunmen have attacked the bardo national museum. eight people have been killed. seven are foreigners. one is a tunisian. more hostages are still inside. it is reported that there are at

least two gunmen. we have reports that at least four policemen have been injured as we continue to watch pictures of ambulances coming out of the grounds of the bardo museum in tunis. now just a few minutes ago, earlier we spoke to a tunisian blogger and political analyst, and he says that tunisian -- >> -- extremist groups who are planning to attack tourist facilities in tunisia, but this didn't really happen over the last four years, and we all know that in 2011, security was not at his climate in tunisia.

to people got used to the fact that the situation was more or less -- no one expected something so -- i would say so big. so because this is the most important terrorist attack that has happened in tunisia modern history. we had attacks on the military in -- in -- in military area but not on civilian targets. not something this big, and certainly not something involving foreigners. i think like most other tunisians isis is the maybe group. we have seen their activities growing over the last few years, and so they are -- they are the main ones accused of doing something like this. we actually have been following

their social media, and they have been praising this action and they have been actually warning that something big would happen in tunisia soon. because we have the independence day for tunisia is in two days. on march 20th. so this is -- you see now -- when you drive or talk around tunisia you have tunisian flags all around and the group, especially the isis affiliated group, the local stamp of isis have been attacking the idea of tunisia as a nation state, et cetera. so i think this looks very much like an isis attack. >> these are the latest pictures out of tunis we are getting as more people try to come out of the bardo museum which is under siege as we speak. tunisian forces as you can see

from these pictures we just got, trying to free the hostages inside. a number of people were being held hostage by at least two gunmen. a number of people again, have come out, but we don't know how many are still inside. the death toll. let's talk about it. it is interesting as we mentioned just a short while ago that the gunmen attacked this particular museum because we're hearing among the dead there are at least seven foreigners, presumably tourists who were visiting this museum. >> i'm also hearing from a source in italy and france -- >> these are more pictures coming in to us out. of people actually coming out of the museum. we have seen at least three or

four people come out. we don't know whether they were in the museum, whether they escaped the gunmen or whether they were hiding inside of the museum. and it's quite dramatic looking at these people runs for their lives, escaping the bardo museum. they don't seem to be any injuries among these people that we're looking at. more of them coming out, again. quite -- quite interesting. we don't know when these pictures were shot but we are gist getting them now. we don't know how many people are inside of the museum but a number of them ten or more, 15 in the last few seconds we have seen come out of this museum. a lot of tourists. and it is quite significant that

these two gunmen -- at least two gunmen that we know of targeted the museum. they must have known they wanted to target this museum because it was frequented by foreigners. if they wanted to attack tunisians they would have attacked someplace else. >> exactly. it seems they wanted to take hostage, or kill foreigners. that's seems like that is why they targeted the museum which is just five minutes from parliament. just down the road is shopping centers and markets. but i am hearing from think sources in italy and from the main italian news agency that

at least three italians were wounded or killed. of course there are many italian and french and european tourists who come to tunisia every year. and there are also a lot of arab tourists who come to tunisia as well. we have heard from the democracy advocate who mentioned there that bardo, as we know is known for its roman mosaics. and we have seen in the past month or so attacks on agent artifacts in iraq in syria, and we have seen groups either linked to isil or isil itself targeting those kinds of artifacts, so it is very interesting that bardo was picked. this particular museum was extremely well-known for its

ancient artifacts. >> i understand that these pictures we're looking at right now are from the compound around the parliament billing. so i'm not sure that they are actually coming out from inside the museum because the parliament is not far from the museum, but is it within walking distance of the museum. give us a sense of where this is happening? >> it's a pretty large compound. there are entrances that parliament used to get into the bardo parliament. there is another entrance that is used for people who want to go into the museum. look at the profiles they certainly looked like tourists. i didn't recognize my of the

parliamentarians. i imagine it is absolutely terrifying right now, trying to figure out how to get inside of that museum because the police do not know what kind of explosives these people have. they have found weapon depots all over the country, whereby they are very well armed. these armed groups. >> how well trained are the police and security forces to handle a situation like this in tunis? in the center of knew advertise with so many people involved. >> this is unprecedented. we mentioned that several times. they have had a lot of

experience in recent hears of being attacked by arms grouped. and having to go in to where they believe armed groups are. convoys have been attacked. military barracks have been attacked. police stations have been attacked. so the security forces are very well trained and aware of how to deal with these groups. but the whole world is. waing tunisia right now, so they will have to tread extremely carefully. >> all right. let's just remind our viewers who are just joining us of what we're looking at right now. this is a breaking news situation where an operation is underway to free a number of people. we're not sure of the exact number of people who have been

taken hostage in tuns any. we heard that gunmen at first attacked the parliament building but then it became clear it was not the parliament building. we have learned that at least eight people have been killed. seven foreigners who were visiting the museum. several managed to escape as you can see from these pictures we are getting from tunisian television, a number of people managed to escape but there are still many more trapped inside the museum it would appear. the spokesman for tunisia's ministry of interior gave an update just a short while ago. let's listen to what he said. >> four people have been rushed

to the hospital. four buses carrying tourists were inside. but we do not have an exact exact -- number. we have information that some tourists are still being held captive. >> okay. that was the spokesman for the tunisian interior ministry who was just saying there that they were -- they thought there were at least a hundred tourists inside of the museum at the time of the attack. many as you can see have managed to escape. unclear how many remain inside. i think we can't emphasize this enough because we -- we very often talk about this region but when we talk about it it's about libya, events in libya, of course, a country which has seen a lot of chaos in the last few

months. in egypt's sinai peninsula as well, but quite unprecedented to see these pictures coming out of tunis. >> tunisia has been sheltered from the kind of violence we have seen in other countries. it has been sheltered for various reasons. tunisia does not have a violent history. it does not have a history of civil wars or tribal or ethnic or sectarian violence. and also geographically located very close to europe. it's a small country. it's not particularly for the oil or gas resources, it really relies on industry agriculture, olive oil, and also on tourism. but in the last few years it has been affected by the rise of armed groups who have kind of

used tunisia in a way as a training ground or as the weapons depot for what is happening in algeria for example, going in mali also for the fighting we have seen and the rise of fighting we have seen in libya. interestingly there are around 3 million libyans living in tunisia -- >> who have fled? >> yeah some of them have fled. but tunisia has always had a history of libyans living there. but since 2011 a lot of libyans have feld the violence and particularly around the fighting we have seen along the border and in libya. there are reports from the tunisian authorities there are

up to 3,000 tunisians fighting in isil-linked groups right now in iraq and syria. also recently in the last few months there was a report that there is an isil training camp just around about 45 kilometers away from the tunisian libyan border that's extremely close. so all of these issues and links have been extremely worrying to the tunisian authorities. they were not expecting this kind of attack and they were definitely not prepared for this kind of attack on civilians on foreign tourists. >> and tunisia was where the so-called arab spring began. and this has been a country that has been hailed a success for the arab spring. >> yes, it carried out very successful elections?

october and again in december. it does have a coalition government in power right now. its president in his 80s. a very experienced statesman who served under previous presidents. he will no doubt be in touch and informed of what is going on right now. and i'm sure tuesday will also use its close links and connections to french intelligence british intelligence u.s. intelligence to try to get some help. because the priority is to save the tourists being held hostage inside of the museum. but they will need intelligence on who these people are, what kind of arms or weaponry they have on them. have they placed explosives around the museum or on themselves. >> all right. thank you for the moment.

1346 gmt, we are watching the situation in tuesday very closely. we'll take you through the developments. gunmen attacked the bardo museum in tunis a few hours ago. eight have been killed seven tourists and more hostages are inside. four policemen have been injured. resaw some pictures from tunisian television where a number of people had managed to escape from the building from the grounds of the museum pictures were from the compound around the parliament building. there is still a number of people trapped inside we understand, not clear how many are still inside.

let's speak to the tunisian director for human rights watch. he joins us on the line from tunis. thank you for taking the time to speak to us. i'm just going to begin by asking you what your initial reactions to these events in tunis are. obviously we don't know who is behind the attack. but your initial reaction. does this attack come as a surprise to you? >> it's definitely a horrific attack, which obviously targets these tourists who are victims of a terrorist attack in tunisia. this is the first attack against civilians. as you know we have been going through several military attacks against the security forces. there are more than 40 of the security forces and the army soldiers killed in tunisia, but more in the mountainous area near the algeria border but

this is the first attack in the capitol. it is something that is very unusual in tunis, and obviously this is a signal -- a clear -- you know -- very clear signal for the tunisian society that its heart is attacked and that these gunmen want -- feel some form of tolerance and openness in tunisia. >> it is quite significant that the bardo museum is the target of this attack. the museum that has been described as the jewel of tunisian heritage which has artifacts dating bake centuries. one can't help but draw a line from this attack and images we have seen from syria in the last few months of isil fighters

attacking a museum destroying artifacts. >> yes, that is a link we can definitely draw because this attack against the museum is very well prepared in my view. it's not something they chose in a very -- just by case. it was something which was very well prepared. they chose it for the symbol because it's the symbol of the culture. the symbol of the my listen listen -- listen -- listen -- milinium and i think they new very well what they were doing. and their message to tunisia, to the world, is that these places

of culture, and openness and these places where people go to visit and to understand -- and to try to have a knowledge of the culture are definitely targets. and obviously with the link of what has happened in the museums in -- in iraq is very -- is very striking. >> indeed. how will tunisia ns be reacting? what is this going to do to the national psyche? >> tunisians now are in shock. we are very well used to the attacks on the algerian border against the soldiers and this is the first one really happening in the capitol. so i think it is really

shocking, and it is something that could destabilize the political landscape, because obviously it happens in middle also of a place -- the bardo museum is very close to the parliament. it's very very close. it's almost the same entrance. so now the -- also the parliamentaryians were i think shocked and they had to be evacuated. i think it will have quite an important effect obviously on the economy, because this is something that tunisians worry a lot about, and the only feel and big income for the economy is tourism, so obviously this is something that is very worrying for the tunisians i think. >> do you think that this could be linked to the anti-terrorism law that was being debated in

parliament? >> i don't think it's linked. it has been debated for quite a few months ago. the national assembly started debating on it in june so i don't think it is linked. what is sure is that the security forces are uncovering more and more alleged terrorist linkages, and they are uncovering, a lot of arm deposits. so this is linked more to the fact that the security forces are more and more on the -- the -- these groups and trying to understood cover what they offer. their plot et cetera. >> thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us.

the tunisian director of human rights watch. she was on the line there where the situation remains fluid at this hour. eight people have been killed according to the interior ministry. seven of them foreigners, and one tunisian. our correspondent who is based in tunisia normally but is here in doha with us. i'm going to mention an interesting point there about whether this would destabilize the political landscape in tunisia. we have a new national unity government in place. after very successful elections. will this event destabilize this government? >> i think it really depends on what the reaction is of the public, whether people come out and blame the tunisian

authorities for not doing enough to prevent this kind of attack. but i think it will have the opposite effect. i think that actually it will make people more united and actually there will be support for the authorities and the government and what it will probably do is cement what has been a clamp down on security in tunisia. there have been hundreds of ar ar -- arrests in the last year or so. amnesty international and human rights groups have criticized the authorities in some circumstances. there have been allegations of torture as well in police stations and in prison of so-called terrorist suspects. there have been many many arrests that we have seen in the past few months.

so what i think what will happen is meme will rally behind the security forces. and there will be a massive clamp down of security in tunisia. >> the french prime minister is saying that france is standing by tunisia and will help in this crisis. more reactions about to come in of course, in the next few hours as the situation continues town fold in tunis. another very important point is the economic repercussions of such an attack. tourism very important for tunisia. this is a country that has been struggling economically and this is not going to help is it? >> no it won't. tunisia economy has been growing, but it has not been

going up fast enough. tunisians are suffering from an economic crisis. they rely on agriculture on industry and also on tourism. they don't have vast resources of oil and gas like their neighbors. they do not have big big interest. so tourism really is the bread and butter of many -- tunisia ns. it's very early right now to talk about the impact on tourism, but i imagine once this situation is resolved tourism will be badly, badly affected by what has happened here. >> okay. we -- we are continuing of course to watch these pictures out of tunis. these are the latest pictures

that came in to us from tunisian of people escaping from the museum. at least two gunmen are said to have attacked the museum. you can see people panicking there. a heavy security presence outside of the museum. we saw men on the roof top as well trying to figure out how many people are still trapped inside this museum. the operation is still ongoing. our correspondent is here with us. we talked about, of course the significance of the attack and the fact that this hasn't happened in tunisia in more than a decade if not more. and also the significance of the target, the bardo museum. the fact that this museum was attacked is quite significant. >> the last attack that i can remember in tunisia was in 2002 against a synagogue in the south

of the country, that was claimed by al-qaeda. but we have had attacks against military barracks, police stations but this is the first time that a tourist site like this has been attacked in tunisian history. this is one of the most important tourist sites in tunisia. it has some of the best, most beautiful, precious roman mosaics in the world. it is extremely popular, and we understand there were hundreds of tourists in the museum at the time of this attack. now there have been links of course which people to have been citing between the fact that this is a culturally iconic place for tunisia, historical place, and what we have seen with isil and the attacks they have carried out in mosul and

other important historical sites in syria and iraq. it's too early to say whether that was the reason bardo was attacked. but look at its location. they could have even attacked parliament which was just five minutes away from this location. but it does seem they went for a visitors site. >> it is now 1400 gmt, we continue with our special breaking news coverage of the hostage situation in the tunisian capitol this wednesday. gunmen have stormed the bardo national museum in tunis. eight people have been killed even of them are said to be foreigners, one is a tunisian a number of police officers have also been injured. now this is happening just a few minutes away from tunisia's parliament building. it's just five minutes