Tunis. (News Of The South) -Gunmen stormed into the Bardo National Museum in Tunisia and killed at least 22 people sparking a three hour siege.
Bardo Museum is the leading tourist attraction in the capital.
According to Tunisia`s Prime Minister Habib Essid 17 of the dead were foreigners from Germany, Italy, Spain, and Poland.
The attack has since been called a cowardly assault.
Three hours after the attck reports from Tunis confirmed the death of two gunmen while three others remain at large.
Those who had been kept hostage have since been freed.
Poland’s foreign ministry said that three Poles were among the six wounded. Spain’s foreign minister José Manuel García-Margallo said two Spaniards died in the attack. He told El País that they were a retired couple from Catalonia who had arrived in Tunis on a cruise. About 90 Spaniards from two cruises were in Tunis on Wednesday.
The siege ended with a single muffled detonation, ambulances with lights flashing drive into the Palace grounds.
More than 100 anxious European tourists were driven out of the museum when the siege ended.
During the hostage crisis, black-clad police snipers were on the rooftops and bastions of the ancient Bardo castle, which forms part of the complex housing the museum.
A helicopter thundered low overhead making circles over the museum. Several hundred people gathered outside the gates of the complex, as the air echoed to the sirens of police cars and ambulances.
The attack came a day after Tunisia announced a major seizure of weapons from jihadi groups, triggering speculation that the museum attack may have been launched in revenge
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