Politics: 50 people are dead and more than 400 are injured after a mass shooting in Las Vegas

A gunman firing from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino killed scores of people who were attending the Route 91 Harvest country music festival on Sunday night.

• A gunman killed at least 50 people and injured 400 others on the Las Vegas Strip late Sunday night.
• It is the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.
• A man identified by the police as Stephen Paddock, 64, fired from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
• The gunman opened fire on concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival.
• A SWAT team stormed his room, but found Paddock already dead.
• President Donald Trump tweeted his "warmest condolences" to victims.

At least 50 people were killed and more than 400 were injured Sunday night in Las Vegas in the deadliest shooting in modern US history.

A gunman opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, aiming into a tightly packed crowd of many thousands of people below who were attending a country music festival.

The shooter, armed with what appeared to be at least one automatic weapon, used the elevated vantage point to fire into the crowds across the Las Vegas Strip at the Route 91 Harvest festival, where Jason Aldean was onstage.

Soon after the shooting, which began at 10:08 p.m. PDT, a SWAT team stormed the building, forced their way into his hotel room, and found the gunman already dead.

Officers identified him as Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old man from Nevada. They believe he was the only attacker, and that he killed himself before they arrived.

In a press conference, Joseph Lombardo, the sheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said the death toll was "in excess of 50," revised up from a previous figure of 20. More than 400 people were injured, he said.

Lombardo said officers had spoken to a woman, Marilou Danley, described as Paddock's roommate. She was outside the United States, he said, and officers believe she was not involved in the attack.

The police are searching Paddock's hotel room, which they say contained at least 10 rifles. He had been staying in the hotel since Thursday September 28, Lombardo said, which he believes had been booked using Danley's ID.

Officers are also investigating his house in Mesquite, Nevada, which is 80 miles from Las Vegas. Lombardo said that officers were investigating the Mesquite property very slowly in case there are explosive traps there.

Footage posted on social media showed the moment the shooting started. The singer Jason Aldean, who was onstage with his band at the time of the attack, later said in an Instagram post that the shooting was "beyond horrific" but that he and his crew were safe.

Here is one video uploaded by a journalist named Josh Caplan that shows screaming concertgoers trying to get away. Viewers may find parts distressing:

Photographs showing the concert area after most people had fled showed a victim covered in blood on the ground.

Another video shows the shooting from a different vantage:

Lombardo said it was too early to comment on the potential motivations of the attacker. He added that two off-duty police officers were killed in the violence, while another two were injured.

Part of the I-15 freeway, which runs parallel to Las Vegas Boulevard, also known as the Las Vegas Strip, was closed but has since been partially reopened.

The death toll makes the massacre the deadliest shooting in modern US history, surpassing the attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, last year that claimed 49 lives.

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A gunman firing from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino killed scores of people who were attending the Route 91 Harvest country music festival on Sunday night. Read Full Story