TUNIS (AFP) - Tunisian authorities are hunting for two or three potential accomplices to the attack on a Tunis museum on Wednesday that killed 17 foreign tourists, the premier said.

The two gunmen who carried out the attack on the Bardo National Museum, which also left two Tunisians dead, were killed in a police assault.

"There is a possibility, but it is not certain, that (the two gunmen) could have been helped... and we are currently conducting extensive search operations to identify the two or three terrorists who possibly participated in the operation," Prime Minister Habib Essid said.

President Beji Caid Essebsi, meanwhile, said measures have been taken to prevent any new attacks.

"The authorities have taken all measures to ensure that such things don't happen" again, Essebsi told AFP as he visited victims of the attack in a Tunis hospital.

"I hope that the means available to us will become more efficient," he said.

"All of the authorities have been informed and I hope such a disaster will not happen again."

He described the attack as a "horrible crime" and said he had assured the wounded of "our support, our sympathy and our regrets that such a thing has happened."