A WOMAN from Barry has described how she was convinced she was about to die, huddling in a Tunisian hotel bathroom during the gun attack that killed 38 people last week.

Stacey Webb, 22, and her friend Chelsey Farmer were staying at the same hotel in Sousse where holidaymakers were gunned down in an attack last Friday (June 26). She was relaxing just yards away from where the gunshots were first fired before being fleeing in terror to a hotel room where she began making calls to family members, saying her goodbyes.

Now back in Barry, Stacey has described the harrowing ordeal she and other holidaymakers experienced during the attack which is being linked to Islamic State extremists.

Stacey, who recently graduated from Cardiff Metropolitan University, had been in Tunisia for six days when the attack began. A decision to not play volleyball on the day of the attack may have saved her life.

"Every day of the holiday I had been going down the beach to play volleyball," she said. "It was the first day I didn't."

Instead of being on the beach where the attack started Stacey was around 100 yards away when the sounds of gunfire began.

At first assuming it was fireworks, no one reacted. After a second volley of shots echoed around the resort, chaos erupted.

"It was like a Tsunami of people coming towards us," Stacey said.

Hurrying into the hotel reception area, people began realising the grave danger they were in. Stacey started making her way to her hotel room, planning on hiding under the bed when two women stopped her, ushering her and others to their hotel room in a safer part of the building.

For the next few hours Stacey and Chelsey huddled with seven other people in a locked bathroom all the while hearing gunshots, explosions, and people screaming for help in the corridor.

Stacey said: "The gunshots were so loud. We didn't know what was going on or how many people were shooting but I've never been more sure of anything in my life. I knew I was going to die. I was 99.99 per cent sure."

Around this time family members in Barry began receiving messages. Mum Linda Webb and cousin Katrina Ralphs both received messages from Stacey saying her goodbyes.

After the ordeal was over, Stacey said she didn't truly feel safe until she arrived home in Barry after an emergency flight flew her and others into Manchester on Sunday (June 28).

Now back at home, she is unable to sleep and becomes extremely emotional recounting the experience.

Reflecting on the atrocity she said: "He was firing into the air, at the walls, into the sand. He wasn't just trying to kill people he wanted to scare people. It was terrorism.

"I just feel so sorry for the people who died."

Stacey was keen to heap praise on staff from the hotel, saying that between them they saved 100s of lives including those of children.

"When we were running to the hotel, they were running past us to the beach to save kids," she said. "They were trying to save us. They were amazing."

She also thanked Thomsons for flying people home on unscheduled flights.

For the full interview see this week's Barry & District News (Thursday).