ISIS have claimed responsibility for the worst mass shooting attack in US history, which has killed at least 58 people and injured hundreds more.
The victims were attending Route 91 Harvest Festival in the Las Vegas Strip on yesterday night when a gunman opened heavy fire from the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay Hotel.
The shooting started after 10pm local time, with video footage showing concert attendees throwing themselves to the ground and running as continuous gunfire shots rang out.
The so-called “Islamic State” issued a press release on their “Amaq” propaganda agency shortly after the attack stating that the gunman, Stephen Paddock, had converted to Islam months ago and was one of their “soldiers”.
Paddock’s family say they are “dumbfounded”. His brother, Eric Paddock, said something must have made him “snap” to murder concert-goers from his hotel room.
He told Daily Mail: “He was just a guy. Something happened, he snapped or something.
“We know absolutely nothing, this is just, we are dumbfounded.
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“We have absolutely no idea. Our condolences go to the victims and all their families. Paddock is believed to have killed himself before a police SWAT team burst into his room, where at least ten rifles were found.”
Paddock shot himself dead just as the police entered his hotel room.
Clark County sheriff Joseph Lombardo said: “We have no investigative information or background associated with this individual that is derogatory.
“The only thing we can tell is he received a citation several years ago, and that citation was handled as a matter of normal practice in the court system.”
The shooting came a few days after ISIS released a speech claiming to be from the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, where he urged his followers to increase “attacks against the infidels”.
ISIS have claimed responsibility for numerous lone-wolf attacks in Europe and North America, including those that have been later proven to have nothing to do with them.
