Picture Courtesy : ABC News – Go.com
In probably the worst shooting incident in American history, at least 50 people were killed and over 400 others injured in a mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas. Multiple people are being treated for bullet wounds at a nearby hospital. Fourteen are said to be critically wounded, the spokesperson of the University Medical Center hospital said.
However , the death toll according to media reports had gone up to 59 and injuring over 500.
My warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting. God bless you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2017
Michelle & I are praying for the victims in Las Vegas. Our thoughts are with their families & everyone enduring another senseless tragedy.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 2, 2017
According to various media reports , Las Vegas police confirmed that one suspect has been neutralised and there are no active shooters. They, however, advised people to avoid the area near Mandalay Bay Casino.
The death toll, which police emphasized was preliminary, would make the attack the deadliest mass shooting in US history, eclipsing last year’s massacre of 49 people at an Orlando night club.
Some 22,000 people were in the crowd when the man opened fire, sending panicked people fleeing the scene, in some cases trampling one another, as law enforcement officers scrambled to locate and kill the gunman. Shocked concertgoers, some with blood on their clothes, wandered the streets after the attack.
At least 406 people were taken to area hospitals with injuries, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said.
Police say they found more than 10 rifles in the Las Vegas gunman’s hotel room https://t.co/5zsObmrOgn pic.twitter.com/aWRyrHVqsb
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) October 2, 2017
Police identified the gunman as area resident Stephen Paddock, 64, and said they had no information yet about his motive. Paddock shot himself before police entered the hotel room he was firing from, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters.
Earlier reports indicated that Paddock, who had more than 10 rifles in his hotel room, had been shot by police.
Paddock was not believed to be connected to any militant group, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters.
“We have no idea what his belief system was,” Lombardo said. “We’ve located numerous firearms within the room that he occupied.”
The rampage was reminiscent of a mass shooting at a Paris rock concert in November 2015 that killed 89 people, part of a wave of coordinated attacks by Islamist militants that left 130 dead.
The concert venue was in an outdoor area known as Las Vegas Village, across the Strip from the Mandalay Bay and the Luxor hotels.
