Australian citizen among the 21 dead in Tunisian terror attack:PM

An Australian citizen has been confirmed among the 21 people killed when two gunmen stormed a museum in the Tunisian capital of Tunis overnight.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed the news in a joint statement with foreign minister Julie Bishop on Thursday.

"Our consular officials have now confirmed that a dual Australian-Colombian citizen, who was a resident of New South Wales, was among the deceased," the statement said.

The statement slammed the attack as a blatant attempt to throw the African nation into chaos, after it formed democracy less than a decade ago.

"This was clearly a terrorist attack on a fledgling democracy," the statement said.

"This incident underlines the terrorist threat to Australians at home and abroad."

The government also said it was doing everything "humanly possible" to protect Australian citizens traveling overseas.

Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid listed an Australian citizen on the preliminary list of 17 tourists left dead in the massacre that occurred at the Bardo National Museum.

Essid also said that a policeman and a Tunisian bus driver were killed in the attack, but the two gunmen were also reported as dead after security forces stormed the building.

More than 40 people were also reportedly injured in the attack and up to 100 tourists might have been at the museum at the time.

World leaders have expressed their outrage, with Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi calling the incident "a horrible attack" and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon labelled it as " deplorable".

The attack is biggest against the African nation since an Al- Qaeda suicide bombing in 2002 which left 21 people dead in Mombassa, Kenya. Endi