'Too many gunshot wounds to count': Doctors' horror at British mother, 48, in coma after being riddled with bullets by Tunisian gunman as tourists share their astonishing tales of survival

Riddled with bullets, she was stretchered away on a sunbed in her pink bikini – an image that has encapsulated the horror of the Tunisian beach attack.

Yesterday, as she lay in a hospital thousands of miles from home fighting for her life, she was named as Briton ALLISON HEATHCOTE, 48.

Mrs Heathcote, of Felixstowe, Suffolk, who works for a shipping company and has a grown-up son, is one of five victims who survived the massacre but is now seriously ill. 

Taken to safety: Allison Heathcote, 48, from Felixstowe, Suffolk, is one of five victims who survived the massacre but is now seriously ill

Treatment: Mrs Heathcote (left and right) is in a medically induced coma after undergoing emergency surgery for multiple bullet wounds

Back home: Matthew James, who was shot three times while protecting fiancee Saera Wilson, gives a thumbs up from hospital in Wales

Recovering: Cheryl Mellor, 54, of Bodmin, Cornwall, played dead for 20 minutes after her husband was shot as he tried to shield her

According to doctors, she is in a medically induced coma after undergoing emergency surgery for multiple bullet wounds.

Dr Moez Luzi, an anaesthetist at the Essalem Clinic, said: ‘She has many gunshots in her abdomen, too many to count. She lost so much blood.’

But Mrs Heathcote – who was on holiday with her 53-year-old husband Philip, who is still missing – has put up a strong fight and relatives say she is now ‘more stable’.

Mr Heathcote’s brother Alan said: ‘I’m very worried for her but I have every faith she is going to make a full recovery.’ 

'I didn't want the terrorists to win': Ben Milton, 24, a civil servant, proposed to girlfriend Shelley Hay hours after they fled the beach

Sadness: Tourists mourn at the site of the shooting attack on the beach in front of the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel at Port el Kantaoui

In this chilling image, Seifeddine Rezgui enters the beach with his Kalashnikov before picking out his victims and shooting them

Mourning: A woman grieves as she lay flowers at the beach next to the hotel where dozens of people were killed in a terrorist attack

Remembering the dead: A tourist places flowers at the beachside of the hotel, which was attacked by a gunman in Sousse on Friday

Leaving now: Tourists arrive at the Enfidha International Airport to leave the country after the attack on a tourist hotel in Sousse