Tunisia’s president has promised to wage a “merciless war against terrorism” after gunmen killed 17 foreign tourists and two Tunisians in a daylight attack on a museum.

As the international community denounced Wednesday’s assault on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis, which also left more than 40 people wounded, President Beij Caid Essebsi vowed Tunisia would fight “to our last breath”.

“I want the Tunisian people to understand that we are in a war against terrorism and that these savage minorities do not frighten us,” said Essebsi, who visited some of the dozens being treated for wounds in a Tunis hospital.

“We will fight them without mercy to our last breath.”

The gunmen, dressed in military uniforms, opened fire on the tourists – including visitors from Japan, Italy, France, Australia, Colombia, Poland and Spain – as they got off a bus then chased them inside the museum, said Prime Minister Habib Essid.

A Japanese survivor described how she and her mother were shot in the hail of bullets.

“I was crouching down with my arms over my head, but I was shot in the ear, hand and neck,” 35-year-old Noriko Yuki said from her hospital bed in comments aired by Japanese broadcaster NHK.

“My mother beside me was shot in the neck. Mother couldn’t move by herself when the police came over,” she added.

Among the dead were three Japanese, four Italians, two Colombians and one each from Australia, France, Poland and Spain, Essid announced on television, in what he said was a definitive toll.

However, differing figures were given by other governments and there was conflicting information over the breakdown, with some of the dead identified as joint nationals.

The nationality of a 16th victim was not given, while the identity of the final fatality had not yet been established.

The Colombian tourists were a mother and child visiting Tunisia on a family holiday, their government said. The father survived the attack.

Police killed two gunmen and the authorities were still hunting for possible accomplices, said the prime minister.

A Tunisian bus driver and a policeman were also reported dead in the attack on the Bardo, famed for its collection of ancient artefacts.

The government announced more than 40 people were wounded, with Health Minister Said Aidi saying they included citizens of France, South Africa, Poland, Italy and Japan.

Global condemnation

The attack appeared to be the worst on foreigners in Tunisia since an al-Qaeda suicide bombing of a synagogue killed 14 Germans, two French and five Tunisians on the island of Djerba in 2002.

It sparked outrage, with hundreds of people gathering later in a major thoroughfare of the capital, singing the national anthem and shouting slogans against the attackers, labelling them terrorists.

The assault also drew strong condemnation from world leaders, who vowed support for Tunisia.

US Secretary of State John Kerry denounced the “wanton violence” while British Prime Minister David Cameron said he was “appalled” by the attack and French President Francois Hollande expressed “solidarity” with the country.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon slammed the “deplorable” and “heinous” act and conveyed his “deepest sympathies” to the families of the victims.

Meanwhile the UN Security Council stressed that “no terrorist attack can reverse the path of Tunisia towards democracy”.

Tunisia has seen an upsurge in Islamist dissent since the 2011 revolution that ousted longtime strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Dozens of police and military personnel have been killed or wounded in attacks blamed on armed groups. Al Jazeera