A gunman disguised as a tourist opened fire at Hotel Riu ImperialMarhaba on Friday with a weapon he had hidden in an umbrella, killing 28 people. 

A number of foreign nationals including British, German and Belgian tourists were all victims as they lounged at the beach and pool in the coastal Tunisian resort city of Sousse.

Frenzied tourists sought for refuge after the staccato of gunfire and explosion bellowed at the Beachfront hotel, 140 km south of the capital Tunis, before police shot the gunman dead, witnesses and security officials said.

The brutal attack incidentally took place during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, on a day in which a decapitated body daubed with Arabic writing was found in France, a suicide bomber killed two dozen people at a mosque in Kuwait and at least 145 civilians were reported killed by Islamic State militants in northern Syria.

Prequel to this terrorist attack, a similar terror attacked rocked Tunisia earlier this year when Islamist militants launched an assault on Tunis Bardo museum killing 21 foreigners in Tunis.

The body of the attacker lay with a Kalashnikov assault rifle where he was shot. Local radio said police captured a second gunman, but officials did not immediately confirm the arrest or his role in the attack.

"One attacker opened fire with a Kalashnikov on tourists and Tunisians on the beach of the hotel," said a hotel worker at the site. "It was just one attacker. He was a young guy dressed in shorts like he was a tourist himself."

According to a Senior interior ministry official named Rafik Chelli, the gunman killed was a student, unknown to authorities and not on any watch list.

Dressed in shorts, the assailant pulled out a weapon he had hidden inside an umbrella he was carrying before opening fire at the beach and pool and tossing an explosive, witnesses said. A security source said another bomb was found on his body.