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| Omar S. Mateen, a 29-year-old Florida resident and U.S. citizen (centre) identified as shooter (Images credit/graphics: Daily Mail UK) |
A gunman armed with an
assault rifle killed 50 people at a packed gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida on
Sunday in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history which authorities described
as a possible act of terrorism.
Reuters
report continues:
Police
killed the shooter, who was identified as Omar S. Mateen, a 29-year-old Florida
resident and U.S. citizen. A top U.S. congressman said Mateen may have pledged
allegiance to the Islamic State militant group.
U.S.
officials cautioned, however, that they had no immediate evidence of any direct
connection with Islamic State or any other foreign extremist group, nor had
they uncovered any contacts between the gunman and any such group.
Fifty-three
people were wounded in the rampage. It was the deadliest single U.S. mass
shooting incident, eclipsing the 2007 massacre of 32 people at Virginia Tech University.
"Today
we're dealing with something that we never imagined and is unimaginable,"
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said, more than doubling an earlier estimate that about
20 bodies had been found.
A
police officer working as a security guard inside the Pulse nightclub exchanged
fire with the suspect at about 2 a.m. (0600 GMT), authorities said. Pulse was
crowded with some 350 revelers at a Latin music night.
"Everyone
get out of pulse and keep running," the club's management wrote on
Facebook as the incident unfolded.
A
hostage situation developed, and three hours later SWAT team officers used
armored cars to storm the club before shooting dead the gunman. It was unclear when
the victims were killed.
Dozens
of terrified patrons, some of whom had been hiding in restrooms, were rescued.
One officer was injured when he was hit in his helmet while exchanging fire
with the gunman, police said.
A
man was arrested in California with assault weapons and possible explosives on
Sunday and told authorities he was in the Los Angeles area for the gay pride
festival, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Representative
Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on a congressional intelligence committee, noted
that the Orlando shooting took place during Ramadan, and that Islamic State
leaders who control territory in Syria and Iraq have urged attacks during this
time.
According
to local law enforcement, the shooter had declared his allegiance to Islamic
State, Schiff said in a statement, all of which "indicates an
ISIS-inspired act of terrorism."
Likely
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said he was "right on radical
Islamic terrorism" and called for toughness and vigilance. Democratic
candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted a brief statement after the attacks, but did
not speculate on the motives of the gunman.
ALLEGIANCE, INSPIRATION
FOX
News Channel reported that Mateen was known to the FBI as recently as 2013,
citing an unnamed source.
If
confirmed as an act of terrorism, it would be the deadliest such attack on U.S.
soil since Sept. 11, 2001, when al Qaeda-trained hijackers crashed jetliners
into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, killing
some 3,000 people.
A
pair of ethnic Chechen brothers killed three people and injured more than 260
with a pair of homemade pressure-cooker bombs at the Boston Marathon in April
2013.
Asked
if the FBI suspected the gunman might have had inclinations toward militant
Islamism, including a possible sympathy for Islamic State, Ronald Hopper, an
assistant FBI agent in charge, told reporters: "We do have suggestions
that the individual may have leanings toward that particular ideology. But
right now we can't say definitively."
U.S.
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who sits on the Senate intelligence and foreign
relations committees, told CNN he understood that the gunman had worked for a
security company and so would have undergone some background checks.
President
Barack Obama ordered the federal government to provide any assistance needed to
Florida police investigating the shooting, the White House said. He was due to
speak later Sunday.
The
attacker was carrying an AR-15 style assault rifle and a handgun, Orange County
Sheriff Jerry Demings said. He was also carrying an unidentified
"device", said Orlando Police Chief John Mina.
Video
footage showed police officers and civilians carrying some people away from the
club and bending over others on the ground. Dozens of police cruisers,
ambulances and other emergency vehicles could be seen in the area.
Dyer
said 39 people were killed inside the club, two outside, and nine others died
after being rushed to hospital.
The
choice of target was especially heart-wrenching for members of the U.S.
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, said LGBT advocacy group
Equality Florida.
"Gay
clubs hold a significant place in LGBTQ history. They were often the only safe
gathering place and this horrific act strikes directly at our sense of
safety," the group said in a statement. "We will await the details in
tears of sadness and anger."
Orlando
has a population of more than 270,000 and is the home of the Disney World
amusement park and many other tourist attractions that drew 62 million visitors
in 2014.
It was the second deadly shooting at an Orlando night spot in as many nights. Late Friday, a man thought to be a deranged fan fatally shot singer Christina Grimmie, a former contestant on "The Voice", as she was signing autographs after a concert.
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| Fatal history - Timeline most recent mass shooting in the US |
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