SOUSSE, Tunisia — Tunisia's interior minister said more people have been arrested following a bloodbath on this beach, as world leaders came to pay respect to the victims and vowed not to let terrorism win.
At least 39 people — mostly British vacationers — were killed when a gunman disguised as a tourist opened fire on beachgoers in Sousse on Friday. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
Tunisia's Interior Minister Mohamed Najem Gharsalli thanked Britain's Home Secretary Theresa May, her French counterpart and the other officials who had flocked to his side in solidarity after the attack.
"We share the same values.... to defend freedom" from those who don't know the meaning of life and fight terrorism in all its forms, he told reporters as May and the others looked on from inside the Imperial Marhaba Hotel.
Gharsalli said Tunisian officials have started making arrests, but did not elaborate save to say that investigators were still working to determine if the attacker had been trained in neighboring Libya.
The hotel's lobby bore no signs of the massacre three days earlier, but May told reporters her visit to Tunisia had been filled with stories of horror but also of bravery in face of the assault.
She described the attack as a "despicable act of cruelty," and said her meetings with Tunisian officials reaffirmed the determination all parties have in fighting "this perverted ideology that is causing this death and destruction."
"We are very clear that the terrorists will not win, we will be united in working together to defeat them but united also in working to defend our values," she told reporters. "That is our resolve, we are united in that."
France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve echoed those sentiments, saying that "we are all together" and determined to cooperate in the fight against terrorism.
Just outside, a handful of tourists were sunning themselves by the hotel pool. While thousands of vacationers headed home and cut their holidays short in the attack's aftermath, Britons Mick Powley and Jannette Kelly said that even after having to run for their lives, leaving was out of the question.
"We have to support these people," Kelly said.