More than 50 dead in Las Vegas concert shooting: Police

Team Udayavani, Oct 2, 2017, 1:46 PM IST

Las Vegas: More than 50 people were killed and 200 wounded when a gunman opened fire on a concert in Las Vegas, police said on Monday, making it the deadliest mass shooting in US history.

“We are looking at in excess of 50 individuals dead and of 200 individuals injured at this point,” Las Vegas Metro Police Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said after Sunday night’s shooting at a country music concert in the Nevada gambling hub.

Lombardo also told a press conference that the gunman, who was killed after armed police responded to the shooting, had been identified as a local man called Stephen Paddock, 64. Police also believed that they had located his female companion who had been earlier named as a person of interest

Concert-goers reported seeing muzzle flashes from the upper floors of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino across Las Vegas Boulevard from the country music festival and the sound of what they described as automatic gunfire.

Witnesses said they saw multiple victims as they fled the gunfire raining down on the concert venue. Some later huddled in the basement of the nearby Tropicana hotel-casino.

Some officers took cover behind their vehicles while others carrying assault rifles ran into the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.

Authorities shut down part of the Las Vegas Strip and Interstate 15.Some flights destined for the McCarran International Airport were diverted due to the shooting.

Witnesses say country singer Jason Aldean was playing near the end of the concert when the gunfire began.