Shots heard near Tunisia Jewish pilgrimage site

A resident of Tunisia’s island of Djerba said he had heard an exchange of shots on Tuesday near a synagogue where a Jewish pilgrimage is taking place.

Tunisia’s Mosaique FM radio station also reported an exchange of gunshots on the island and that a police officer had been found shot but did not say if it was close to the pilgrimage site.

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There has been no official confirmation of the shooting. A video circulating on social media that Reuters has not been immediately able to verify showed people standing in a courtyard and the sound of a gunshot.

The annual pilgrimage to Africa’s oldest synagogue regularly draws hundreds of Jews from Europe and Israel to the island of Djerba, a major holiday resort center off the coast of southern Tunisia, 500 km (300 miles) from the capital Tunis.

The pilgrimage has had tight security since al-Qaeda militants attacked the synagogue in 2002 with a truck bomb killing 21 Western tourists.

Mainly Muslim Tunisia is home to one of North Africa’s largest Jewish communities. Though they now number less than 1,800 people, Jews have lived in Tunisia since Roman times.

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