A gunman killed at least 39 people on a Tunisian beach Friday in the latest attack on the north African country's key tourism industry.

The gunman opened fire on the beach in the resort town of Sousse between the Soviva and Imperial Marhaba hotels before security forces responded, killing him, Interior Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Aroui said. It was at first reported that a second gunman was at large.

Five Britons have been confirmed dead and the victims also include Germans, Belgians and Spaniards.

"There was a mass exodus off the beach," British tourist Gary Pine told Sky News, adding that his son saw someone who got shot.

He said guests at his hotel were first told to lock themselves in their rooms, and later to gather in the lobby.

A tourist from Ireland says she was on the beach in Tunisia with her two sons when she heard what she first thought were fireworks.

Elizabeth O'Brien tells Ireland's RTE radio she looked about 500 meters away and saw a hot air balloon collapse, then heard rapid firing and saw two people who were going to go up in the balloon running toward her.

O'Brien says she rushed to the sea to get her children and that waiters and security on the beach urged them to run as they raced toward the hotel. They ran to their room and holed up there.

She says her travel agent told her to go talk to someone at the reception desk but she's too afraid to leave the room.

A spokesperson for the Maltese Foreign Affairs Ministry said the government was still waiting for official confirmation by the Maltese Ambassador in Tunisia but there are no indications that Maltese nationals were present in the area. 

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has confirmed that one of the two beachside are owned by a Spanish company. Rajoy said from Brussels that the attacks Friday in Tunisia and in France were both acts of terror but did not provide more details.

Tunisian officials identified the hotel Rajoy referred to as the Hotel Riu Imperial Marhaba in the Port El Kantaoui neighborhood of Sousse. It is owned by Spain's RIU Hotels & Resorts, which has more than 100 hotels in 19 countries.

The company's media office said RIU's board of directors was holding an emergency meeting following

RIU Hotels & Resorts said in a statement that it is collecting information about what happened on the beach in front of the Hotel Riu Imperial Marhaba in the Port El Kantaoui neighborhood of Sousse. It said it is in "permanent contact with authorities." RIU promised to report its findings to the public on its Website and through social media. The company's statement made no mention of the nationalities of guests killed.

Tunisian Interior Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Aroui says the police operation to catch the second gunman behind the attack on the beach resort is ongoing and the exchange of fire is continuing. He says one gunman behind "the terrorist attack was killed during an exchange of fire with security forces. A terrorist infiltrated the buildings from the back before opening fire on the residents of the hotel, including foreigners and Tunisians," he said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron says the government's crisis committee, COBRA, will meet later Friday in response to the attacks in France and Tunisia. He offered condolences and "our solidarity in fighting this evil of terrorism."

"The people who do these things, they sometimes claim to do it in the name of Islam," Cameron said. "They don't. Islam is a religion of peace."

He said the attackers acted from "a twisted and perverted ideology we have to confront with everything we have."

Rafik Chelli, one of Tunisia's top security officials, told Mosaique FM that the gunman shot by security forces after attacking a Tunisian beach resort was unknown to authorities.

He said the man, from the city of Kairouan, came from the beach hiding his Kalashnikov under an umbrella before opening fire on the tourists. From there he entered the Hotel Imperial through the pool, shooting people as he went.

Chelli said there were many foreigners among the victims but he did not have an exact count of the nationalities.

He said authorities had a plan to protect the hotels during the month of Ramadan but this was an isolated operation that is difficult to counter against and there is never zero risk.

Germany's foreign minister says his government doesn't yet know whether Germans were among the victims of the attack on a beach resort in Tunisia.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier noted in a statement that the Group of Seven nations assured Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi of their support in fighting terrorism when he was a guest at the G-7 summit in Germany earlier this month. He said that "today's attack can only strengthen us in that."

Steinmeier's ministry said it was working to clear up whether Germans were affected and a consular team from the German Embassy in Tunis was heading to the scene.

 

Kuwait blast 

In the meantime, a suicide bomber has targeted a Shia mosque around the time of Friday prayers in the Kuwaiti capital.

The scale of the attack is not yet known, though a number of fatalities has been reported. The blast hit the Imam Sadiq Mosque in al-Sawaber - a busy area to the east of Kuwait City.

No group has yet said it was behind the blast.

Earlier today a man was decapitated and two others injured in a separate terrorist attack in southern France. 

PN condemns horrific terror attacks 

The Nationalist Party expresses its shock and offers its condolences to the victims of the cowardly terror attacks in Tunisia, France and Kuwait today. 

More than ever before, today's horrific attacks show us that terrorism is a global phenomenon that makes no distinction between peoples of different religions or nationalities. We must stand firm in solidarity against extremism. Terror will not intimidate and will not prevail wherever it takes place.

Sousse pictures: Lionel Tunisiano/Twitter

Kuwait picture: AP