Tunisian beach massacre: Scottish victims' bodies are brought home to the UK

The C-17 military transport aircraft left Tunis airport bound for Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.

The flight, which will arrive at about 3pm, contains the bodies of Adrian Evans, Charles Evans, Joel Richards, Carly Lovett, Stephen Mellor, John Stollery, and Denis and Elaine Thwaites, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said.

The flight set off as Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs that 27 British nationals had been confirmed dead.

But that figure is expected rise as 30 Britons are believed to be among the 38 shot dead by student Seifeddine Rezgui, 23, at the beach resort of Sousse on Friday.

Those being returned include Mr Stollery, 58, a social worker from Nottinghamshire who was on holiday with his wife Cheryl, Mr Thwaites, a former Birmingham City football player and wife Elaine, and engineer Mr Mellor, from Bodmin in Cornwall, who was killed as he shielded his wife on the beach.

Patrick Evans, also known as Charles, was believed to be 78. He was in Tunisia with his son Adrian and his 19-year-old grandson Joel. Adrian worked as a manager in a gas services department, while Joel was believed to be a talented football referee.

Ms Lovett was a 24-year-old fashion blogger from Lincolnshire.

Mr Cameron said of the British death toll: "We do expect it to rise still further."

He told the Commons he is looking at creating a ministerial committee to co-ordinate work across Government "to provide all the support that the victims of this appalling attack deserve and also to make sure that, as a nation, we mark and commemorate this event appropriately".

The first RAF repatriation flights left Britain early this morning and will carry the bodies back to the UK, with the process expected to take a number of days.

Those wounded have already been brought back to the UK, with four severely injured holidaymakers flown home. They are being treated at hospitals in Birmingham, Oxford, Plymouth and London.

Among the four is Allison Heathcote, 48, from Felixstowe, Suffolk, who was celebrating her 30th wedding anniversary when she was gunned down.

She was shot repeatedly in her stomach and shoulder and was pictured shortly after the attack in her pink bikini lying immobile on a sun lounger as hotel staff tended to her wounds.

Her husband Philip, 52, was killed in the terror attack. She has undergone surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where she is in a critical condition.

Tunisian authorities are questioning several suspected associates of Rezgui, who had links to the terror group Islamic State (IS).

They have said he acted alone during the rampage but had accomplices who supported him beforehand, providing him with weapons and logistical support.

Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi said an investigation is under way into security failures and there would be armed tourist police on beaches.

A minute's silence will be held in memory of the victims at noon on Friday, a week after the outrage. Flags are expected to be flown at half-mast over Government departments and Buckingham Palace that day.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond is chairing a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergencies committee later to discuss the latest situation.

Foreign Office minister Tobias Ellwood, who has been in Tunisia to speak with ministers there and support officials helping families, is due to be at Brize Norton when the first bodies arrive back. Mr Ellwood lost his own brother to a terrorist bomb in Bali, Indonesia, in 2002.