More than 20 people were killed and over 100 others were wounded in a mass shooting during a concert Sunday night outside of the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas in the US state of Nevada, local police confirmed on Monday.
The shooter opened fire from the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay Hotel around 11:00pm (GMT0600 Monday) and was killed by police later, Joseph Lombardo, Sheriff of Las Vegas Metropolis Police Department (LVMDP) said at a press conference at 1:30am (GMT0830) on Monday morning.
Investigators identified the shooter as local resident and did not find any relationship with terrorism, Lombardo said, adding that policemen were also hunting an Asian female, whose name was Marylou Danley.
"We don't believe there are any more shooters," Lombardo said.
University Medical Center told Xinhua earlier that two victims were dead in the hospital.
Some of the off-duty California police officers were reportedly among the victims.
"Twenty-six patients were admitted to the hospital, at least two have passed away, 12 are in critical condition, rest of the patients are being evacuated," Danita Cohen, spokesperson of University Medical Center, told Xinhua.
In video clips posted online, the sound of an automatic weapon being fired can be heard. It was reported that the kind of firearm that made that noise cannot be easily purchased at US gun stores.
ABC 7 news channel reported that there were hundreds of shots.
The concert was interrupted after people gathering there ran away when they found it was the sound of a machine gun instead of fireworks.
Earlier, CBS Los Angeles and FOX 11 both said two were killed in the shooting, while 24 were injured and 12 in critical condition.
LVMPD tweeted early that "Please do not live stream or share tactical positions of our officers on scene, this may put emergency responders in danger”.
"We heard what sounded like firecrackers going off. Then all of a sudden we heard what sounded like a machine gun. People started screaming that they were hit ... when we started running out there were probably a couple hundred on the ground," Meghan Kearney, who was at the festival when the shooting broke out, told MSNBS news channel.
"People kept dropping and dropping ...People were getting shot one foot away from us. People were trying to save their friends. There were gunshots everywhere. Helping them would’ve meant that we got shot too," she said. - Xinhua
