Las Vegas shooting becomes deadliest in US history as death toll hits 55

No fewer than 55 people have been confirmed dead following the mass shooting that occurred Sunday night in Las Vegas.

The number of injured has surpassed 200.

The incident is now officially the deadliest in the history of United States.

The killings took place outside a building at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino during the Route 91 country festival.

The shooter fired into the crowd from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel.

The attacker was later killed in a shoot-out with police.

Cole Watson, who was at the concert with his wife and kids, said “at first it sounded like someone was setting off a whole lot of fire crackers”.

He said when they “realised it was gunfire, everybody started running”

“The scene was insane – it was absolute chaos,” Watson told Al Jazeera by telephone.

Wade Millward, a journalist with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, told Al Jazeera that gun fire echoed while country-music star Jason Aldean was performing.

“Witnesses told me they heard a sound like fireworks going off,” he said.

“Aldean played on for about thirty seconds before it dawned on everyone that this was not fireworks. Then people hit the ground and people ran.”

Watson said he saw several injured people when he and his family ran from the scene of the attack.

The event was the Route 91 Harvest Festival, a three-day country music event. The Festival was held at the Las Vegas Village and Festival Grounds, run by MGM Resorts. It happened at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
The gunman fired from a Las Vegas hotel.

Country singer Jason Aldean was performing, when the shooting started. Several SWAT teams were sent to the hotel immediately after the first reports of the shooting at 10:08 p.m Shortly before midnight the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reported that “one suspect is down,”.

He was neutralised in a hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel.Numerous weapons had been found in the room. A search was also due to take place shortly at his home address.

Thereafter the police said they did not believe there were any more active gunmen.The gunman was identified as

Stephen Paddock, 64 from Nevada. More than 50 victims died, and at least 200 others were wounded.
It is one of the deadliest mass shootings in United States history.