'Run, hide, tell': Holidaymakers urged to watch terror attack film

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As the peak holiday season gets under way, police, the Foreign Office and the travel industry are telling British holidaymakers to be alert to terror attacks.

A four-minute film is released today depicting a firearms attack at a hotel. In June 2015, 30 British people died when a lone gunman attacked a hotel at Sousse in Tunisia, and elements from that horrific atrocity have been incorporated into the film. It includes an image of a woman lying apparently slain.

The film urges holidaymakers to “run, hide, tell”: run away from the shooting; if that is not possible, then find as safe a hiding place as possible; and when it is safe to do so, tell the police.

The central message was first launched by UK police in December 2015 after the attacks in Paris in which 130 people died.

Lord Ahmad, the Foreign Office Minister for National Security and Counter Terrorism, said: “I encourage people to watch this film before they go away. While there is no specific information that British holidaymakers will be targeted this summer, it sets out some simple steps we can all take to minimise the impact of an attack if one does take place.”

The national coordinator for the Government’s Protect and Prepare initiative, detective chief superintendent Scott Wilson, said: “We want people to think of this in the same way they do the safety film airlines show before take-off. They don’t expect anything bad to happen but it is a sensible safety precaution to show people what to do.”

Abta, the travel association, is coordinating training for staff working at home and overseas on how to spot suspicious items and activity, and what to do in the event of a major incident. So far 23,000 staff have received the training.

As The Independent has revealed, the odds of a British tourist becoming a fatality have never been lower — largely as a result of improvements to road safety in Spain and other popular destinations.