Seifeddine Yacoubi Tunisia Isis
Seifeddine Rezgui shot and killed 38 people, mostly Britons, before being killed in Sousse, Tunisia Facebook

The father of gunman Seifeddine Rezgui who massacred 38 mostly British tourists in Tunisian holiday resort Sousse said his son was cultured and hard-working and had been "brainwashed".

Speaking to France 24 from Gaafour, south-west of Tunis, Hakim Rezgui said: "I am shocked, they brainwashed my son.

"He was studying well, he was about to graduate, he was cultured, and some people came and brainwashed him."

The family claim they were unaware of Rezgui's increasingly radical beliefs, and said his passions were football, rap music and breakdancing.

An engineering student, Rezgui also had a job at a small café in Gaafour, where he sold coffee and cigarettes.

Friends told the station that when a group of five met Rezgui on Wednesday (24 June) night nothing seemed untoward, and they had chatted about football and sang team chants.

Regui's uncle, Ali Al-Rezgui, said that unlike other hard-line Islamists his nephew did not even have a beard.

"Yes, he went to mosque and prayed, but just like the other young men, he would then go to a cafe and play football with his friends," he told the Telegraph.

"I last saw him on Thursday, he said 'hello', and then he left that night and went to his friend's house. We didn't know where he was going, and there were no goodbyes. The entire family is shocked at the hidden reality of what he was capable of."

More than 3,000 Tunisians are believed to have travelled to join Isis in territory the group controls in Syria and Iraq, and though Rezgui was not on the radar of Tunisian security services, Rezgui's Facebook account shows his growing support for radical Islam.

Isis claimed responsibility for the attacks, publishing a picture of Rezgui under his Isis nom de guerre Abu Yahya AlQuirawani, in reference to Kairouan, an ancient seat of Sunni Islamic learning, and meeting place for Libyan Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia, which has since been declared a terrorist group by the USA and Tunisia.

Security sources said that he appeared to have been radicalised online, and that although he had a passport, he had never travelled abroad.