Beach Victims Returned To Home Soil

Beach Victims Returned To Home Soil
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The bodies of nine victims of the Tunisian beach massacre have been returned to the UK, as the final British death toll was confirmed at 30.

The coffins carrying the remains of Lisa and William Graham, Philip Heathcote, Trudy Jones, Ann and James McQuire, Janet and John Stocker, and David Thompson were loaded into hearses in a sombre ceremony at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.

Military personnel unloaded the coffins, which were topped with floral arrangements, and slowly carried them from the RAF C-17 transport plane used to bring them back from Tunisia into the waiting hearses.

The task, performed by members of the RAF Regiment's Queen's Colour Squadron, was witnessed by relatives of the dead who were present at the airbase.

Eight Britons killed in the terror attack were brought back to British soil yesterday, and further flights are expected tomorrow and on Saturday.

British nationals made up the majority of the 38 killed by gunman Seifeddine Rezgui when he opened fire on holidaymakers on a beach in the resort of Sousse on Friday - along with three Irish nationals, two Germans, one Belgian, one Portuguese and one Russian.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: "We now have all 30 British victims positively identified and we can say with a high degree of confidence that is now the final death toll of British nationals killed in this incident."