AN Orford couple have spoken out over the moment their first holiday together turned into a terrifying nightmare.

Jac Randell and girlfriend Hollie Nicklin had got up early to watch the sun rise in Sousse, Tunisia hours before bullets flew the air during a terrorist attack on Friday.

A total of 38 people have so far been reported dead after a gunman stormed the holiday resort.

The couple have said they feel incredibly lucky to have survived the ordeal and are still coming to terms with what happened.

Jac, aged 24, said: "I first heard a popping sound and thought it was a guy trying to start a speed boat engine and it was misfiring.

"I realised it was gun fire when I could see puffs and clouds of smoke and then I could hear bullets flying though the air, ricocheting off metal objects and hitting sand and blowing it everywhere.

"This was all in a matter of seconds and I said to my girlfriend it's gun fire and we need to get off the beach.

"We started running back to our hotel.

"It's only a five minute walk but it felt like we were running forever and I was trying to shield my girlfriend and telling her to run faster.

"All the time we were preparing ourselves to be shot and I was screaming at guests around the pool to get inside."

 

 


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Jac, who is originally from Cardiff, said as they fled waiters and chefs from the hotel ran past them to create a human shield around the hotel.

Jac and student nurse Hollie, aged 28, then locked themselves in their hotel room and said they tried to find places to hide, even considering climbing into the room's ceiling vents.

Jac added: "All we could hear was gun fire and we didn't know if the gunmen were in our hotel.

"It was frightening and then all of a sudden after all the explosions and gunfire it just went silent and then we could hear the emergency services and a military helicopter arrive.

"We stayed in the room for about five-and-a-half hours and could only watch on the news as the number of deaths went up and up.

"We just felt so helpless that there was nothing we could do."

The couple, who had been going out for seven months, were flown home at 2am on Saturday morning and have praised Thomson for the way they handled the emergency.

They added they felt they should leave out of respect for the many families caught up in the tragedy but said it 'broke their hearts' to leave the 'lovely' people in Tunisia.

Jac, a self-employed delivery driver, said: "We had nine days left but we couldn't care less about the holiday as we're privileged enough to go away again in the future.

"Lots of the staff were crying and saying 'We will get these people for you' but we wanted to get back to our families.

"The people that were prepared to take bullets for us are the true heroes as they must have saved a lot of lives and we can't thank them enough but everybody in their own way did something heroic that day.

"My heart goes out to those that have lost family members but I would still like to return at some point to pay my respects.

"I was doing yoga on the beach with the entertainment team and it's scary and sickening to think the terrorists could have been watching us then.

"It's still surreal watching it on the news thinking we were there and we were survivors.

"We ran for our lives believing this was it.

"We're thankful to have been given another chance in life."