A Mawnan woman has spoken of the panic during last week's bloody Tunisian hotel attack, which she witnessed from along the shoreline.

Shelley Tonkin was walking on the beach in Sousse on Friday when she heard the sounds of gunfire as student Seifeddine Rezgui opened fire on holidaymakers at a five star hotel beach, killing 38.

Shelley and her friend Carmen Oxley, from Falmouth, saw terrified sunbathers and beach vendors leaving sunbeds and running for their lives as the Tunisian student opened fire just two hotel beaches away, and possibly saw the gunman.

She said: "Beach vendors were starting to run, people coming off their sunbeds and running.

"We went back to the hotel; there were more explosions, helicopters were circling around. We were fairly close, just two beaches away."

"It didn't seem real, you don't expect that."

Shelley, 58, who works at the Spar shop in Mawnan Smith, and Carmen, 57, were staying at the Hotel Kenz, just two hotels away from the scene of the bloody attacks.

Read the full story in this week's Falmouth Penryn Packet