THE bodies of nine British victims of the Tunisian beach massacre were this afternoon being flown home, as the final UK death toll was confirmed at 30.

The Foreign Office said an RAF C17 transport plane was returning the remains of Lisa and William Graham, Philip Heathcote, Trudy Jones, Ann and James McQuire, Janet and John Stocker, and David Thompson to Brize Norton air base in Oxfordshire.

Eight Britons killed in the terror attack were brought back to British soil yesterday, and further flights are expected tomorrow and on Saturday.

Today the Tunisian government said it had arrested 12 suspects in connection with the atrocity but are still hunting for accomplices believed to have helped Islamic State (IS) fanatic Rezgui.

According to Tunisian officials, Rezgui trained at a Libyan jihadist camp at the same time as the two gunmen who attacked the Bardo museum in Tunis in March, killing 22 people.

British nationals made up the majority of the 38 killed by gunman Seifeddine Rezgui when he opened fire on holidaymakers on a beach in the resort of Sousse on Friday - along with three Irish nationals, two Germans, one Belgian, one Portuguese and one Russian.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: "We now have all 30 British victims positively identified and we can say with a high degree of confidence that is now the final death toll of British nationals killed in this incident."

Those brought back to British soil yesterday included the youngest known victim, Joel Richards, 19, who was killed alongside his uncle Adrian Evans and his grandfather Patrick Evans at the beach resort of Sousse last Friday.

Joel's brother Owen, 16, survived the attack.

As his body was brought home in a coffin yesterday, Joel's mother told of her heartbreak. She said: "We are a very small and normal family, but nothing will ever be normal again.

"My son Joel, dad Pat and brother Adrian were our rocks and we are all heartbroken and devastated and will never get over losing them."

The other Britons brought back yesterday included Carly Lovett, 24, a fashion blogger from Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, who reportedly survived the massacre on the beach only to die when a grenade was thrown into her hotel.

The bodies of engineer Stephen Mellor, 59, from Bodmin in Cornwall, killed as he shielded his wife Cheryl on the beach, and John Stollery, 58, a social worker from Nottinghamshire, were also flown back, as were former Birmingham City football player Denis Thwaites, 70, and his wife, 69-year-old Elaine.

The grieving relatives wept as the flower-covered coffins were taken out of a plane at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and loaded into hearses.

Out of the 38 people killed by fanatic Seifeddine Rezgui in the terror attack, 30 have been identified as British while another is believed to be from the UK.

Mr Hammond said last night all of the British victims will be flown back to the UK "over the coming days".

Some of them will arrive at RAF Brize Norton later today.

The other British victims include: John Welch, 74, of Corsham, and his partner Eileen Swannack, from Biddestone; Christopher and Sharon Bell, from Leeds; David Thompson, from Tadley, Hampshire; Chris Dyer, from Watford; Trudy Jones, of Gwent, South Wales; Lisa Burbidge, from Gateshead; Philip Heathcote, 52, from Suffolk; Sue Davey from Staffordshire; Scott Chalkley from Derby; Claire Windass from Hull; Bruce Wilkinson, 72, from Goole, East Yorkshire; Jim and Ann McQuire, from Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire; Stuart Cullen, 52, from Suffolk; Billy and Lisa Graham, from Perthshire in Scotland; John Stocker, 74, and his wife Janet, 63, from Crawley.

The Irish victims were Lorna Carty, from Robinstown, Co Meath, and Laurence and Martina Hayes, both in their 50s, from Athlone in Co Westmeath.