Tunis attack survivors return to Italy

(ANSA) - Rome, March 20 - Survivors of Wednesday's Islamic terrorist tourist massacre in a Tunis museum made their way home Friday.
    "I was outside the museum, the shooting was going on behind me, it was terrible," said Sara Belmessieri, 35, after landing at Genoa airport earlier in the day.
    "In those moments all I could think about was my parents and an overwhelming desire to come home," she said.
    Another survivor, 55-year-old Sonia Reddi, is being flown in to Milan's Malpensa airport later on Friday. She was severely wounded in the attack that killed her husband, and an ambulance will be standing by to take her to hospital in her native city of Novara.
    In Turin, Mayor Piero Fassino boarded a bus carrying some 30 survivors back home, shaking hands with each one.
    "God saved us," said one woman.
    "My thoughts go out to the orphans," said another.
    At least two of the four Italian fatalities were employees of the Turin town council, which declared two days of mourning with flags at half mast.
    Italy's Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Friday that their remains will be brought home Saturday by an Air Force flight.
    Another Italian tourist, Lorena Boni, remains hospitalized in Tunis.
    Also on Friday, the interior ministry issued a statement saying the risk of copycat actions in Italy "cannot be excluded". The ministry's public security department issued a statement urging security forces to beef up protection at Tunisian diplomatic posts and other potential targets.
    Meanwhile in Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there is no clear evidence yet that the bloody attack in which a total of 23 people died was masterminded by the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist organization, which had claimed responsibility.