Las Vegas shooting: Over 50 dead, at least 200 injured in Mandalay Bay attack

Las Vegas shooting: Over 50 dead, at least 200 injured in Mandalay Bay attack
Fecha de publicación: 
2 October 2017
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At least 50 people died and over 200 were injured in the worst mass shooting in US history, at a music festival near the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas. The gunman rained fire from the 32nd floor of a hotel for several minutes before he was killed by police.

The gunman in the Las Vegas attack has been named as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said, according to Reuters.

Police are currently looking for a roommate of the dead gunman as a person of interest.

Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said officers confronted the suspect, believed to be a local resident, on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, just across the street from the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival.

Several officers from the Bakersfield Police Department were attending the music concert when the assailant opened fire. One was shot and taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

University Medical Center spokeswoman Danita Cohen told the Los Angeles Times that the hospital is still evaluating the condition of “many patients” with gunshot injuries.

There were reportedly so many gunshot victims that local residents took injured people to the emergency room in their cars.

Lombardo said this appears to be a ‘lone wolf’ attack, with the suspect believed not to be connected to any militant organization.

Two off-duty police officers were killed in the attack, he confirmed. A third is in a critical condition, and a fourth was wounded.

“We have no idea what his belief system was,” Lombardo told reporters. “Right now, we believe he was the sole aggressor and the scene is static.”

The shooter appeared to be using an automatic weapon, according to witness reports.

“There was blood everywhere,” one witness said.

“People were hit within 20 feet of us,” witness Rick Messick, who said he was in the front row of the concert, told CBS2.

“There were several people laying in the parking lot … they were trying to stop the bleeding,” he added.

Jose Baggett, 31, a Las Vegas resident, said he and a friend were in the lobby of the Luxor hotel-casino, north of the festival venue, when people started crying and running in all directions.

As Baggett and his friend walked away, they saw police checkpoints with officers carrying shotguns and assault rifles.

“There were armored personnel vehicles, SWAT vehicles, ambulances, and at least a half-mile of police cars,'' Baggett told AP.

Footage emerged on social media apparently showing people fleeing the concert venue.

The video was filmed by Twitter user Eiki Hrafnsson‏, who says that he is currently at the Mandalay Bay hotel which is on lockdown. Some commenters wrote that their relatives are also trapped in the hotel, while others said that they were running from “the active shooters,” implying that there may be more than one.

Another video has been captured, apparently during a music concert at Mandalay Bay with multiple gunshots audible in the background.

Las Vegas Boulevard is currently shut down at Tropicana and 15 freeway is closed to traffic from Tropicana to Russell Road, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

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