In this picture taken on May 9, 2023, police secure an area near the Ghriba synagogue following a shootout on the resort island of Djerba. (YASSINE MAHJOUB / AFP) DJERBA, Tunisia -- Tunisian authorities were Wednesday investigating a shooting spree by a police officer that claimed five lives and sparked mass panic during a Jewish pilgrimage at Africa's oldest synagogue. Security forces threw a tight cordon around the site on Djerba island as officials probed whether Tuesday's shootings were a random killing spree or an anti-Semitic terrorist attack. The police officer first killed a colleague and took his ammunition, then went to the Ghriba synagogue and opened fire, sparking terror on the final day of the annual pilgrimage. Wearing his uniform and a bulletproof vest, he shot dead two visitors and injured two more. In the ensuing gun battle, he also wounded six police officers, two of whom later died, hospital sources said. The assailant was then shot dead himself, the interior ministry said, without identifying him. "Without the rapid intervention of the security forces, there would have been wider carnage" because hundreds of people were at the site, said Rene Trabelsi, a former tourism minister, speaking on Mosaique FM radio. Trabelsi, who was at the synagogue during the shootings, named the visitors killed as Tunisian Aviel Haddad, 30, and his France-based cousin, dual national Benjamin Haddad, 42. The killing spree was Tunisia's first deadly attack on foreigners since 2015, and the first to target the Ghriba pilgrimage since a suicide truck bombing killed 21 people in 2002.

'Cowardly aggression'

"Investigations are continuing in order to shed light on the motives for this cowardly aggression," the interior ministry said, refraining from referring to the shooting as a terrorist attack. France "condemns this heinous act in the strongest terms," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre. US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller earlier said: "The United States deplores the attack in Tunisia coinciding with the annual Jewish pilgrimage that draws faithful to the El Ghriba Synagogue from around the world. "We express condolences to the Tunisian people and commend the rapid action of Tunisian security forces." According to organisers, more than 5,000 Jewish faithful, mostly from overseas, participated in this year's event. The annual pilgrimage only resumed in 2022 after two years of pandemic-related suspension.

Dwindling Jewish community

Coming between Passover and Shavuot, the pilgrimage to Ghriba is at the heart of Jewish tradition in Tunisia, where only about 1,500 members of the faith still live -- mainly on Djerba -- compared with around 100,000 before independence in 1956. Pilgrims travel from Europe, the United States and Israel to take part, although their numbers have dropped since the deadly bombing in 2002. Tuesday's shooting came as the tourism industry in Tunisia has finally rebounded from pandemic-era lows, as well as from the aftereffects of a pair of attacks in Tunis and Sousse in 2015 that killed dozens of foreign holidaymakers. Tunisia suffered a sharp rise in Islamist militancy after the Arab Spring ousted longtime despot Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, but authorities say they have made significant progress in the fight against terrorism in recent years. The Ghriba attack also comes as Tunisia endures a severe financial crisis that has worsened since President Kais Saied seized power in July 2021 and rammed through a constitution that gave his office sweeping powers and neutered parliament.