Tunisia lawmaker escapes assassination bid

A lawmaker with Tunisia's main political party said he escaped an assassination bid unharmed while driving to work in the coastal city of Sousse on Thursday.

"At around 9:45, on my way to work, a car on the road shot at me," Ridha Charfeddine, who survived without injury, told the radio station Jawhara FM.

"I wasn't able to see the shooter sitting in the back seat," added the legislator with Nidaa Tounes, the anti-Islamist party of President Beji Caid Essebsi.

"It's a miracle that I'm still alive," said Charfeddine, who is also president of a first division football club, Etoile Sportive de Sahel.

There was no immediate comment on the incident from the interior ministry, whose spokesman was unavailable.

In 2013, Tunisia was shaken when left-wing opposition figures Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi were shot dead in front of their homes.

The authorities blamed jihadists for both murders. In December, extremists linked to the Islamic State jihadist group said it carried out the assassinations.

The group also claimed responsibility for the beach massacre last June in Sousse where a jihadist gunman killed 38 foreign tourists.