Fifty people were killed and 53 injured at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in the worst mass shooting in US history. Authorities are investigating the massacre as a potential terrorist attack.
Clubgoers fled the dance floor chaos in the early hours in a rush for safety, as a local police officer moonlighting as a security guard exchanged shots with the attacker, identified as Omar Mateen, a US citizen from Port St Lucie, Florida. Mateen, whose parents are from Afghanistan, was killed as police stormed the club.
FBI special agent in charge Ron Hopper told reporters “we do have suggestions that [the] individual might have leanings toward” Islamist extremism. But the bureau has not yet classified the killings as either terrorism or an anti-gay hate crime, he added.
Jerry Demings, Orange County sheriff, said: “This is an incident, as I see it, that we certainly classify as a domestic terror incident.”
As law enforcement agencies from as far away as Boston and Chicago offered their assistance, Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer asked Florida’s governor to declare a state of emergency. “We’re dealing with something we never imagined, and something that is unimaginable,” Mr Dyer said.
The attack was the deadliest shooting in US history. A massacre at Virginia Tech university in 2007 that left 32 dead had been the worst US mass shooting. If confirmed as the work of an Islamist extremist, it would be the worst terror attack on US soil since September 11 2001.
Coming amid a bitter presidential election contest, the killings are certain to roil US politics. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, who advocates a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US, on Sunday morning tweeted: “Really bad shooting in Orlando. Police investigating possible terrorism. Many people dead and wounded.”
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, his likely opponent, alluded to the “devastating news” from Orlando and offered thoughts for “those affected by this horrific act” in a signed tweet.
A witness interviewed on MSNBC said there were at least 20 to 30 shots. “It was just one after another after another after another,” he said. “The cops were yelling ‘go, go. Clear the area’.”
As officers from several agencies, including a Special Weapons and Tactics team, swarmed the site, the gunman took one or more hostages, police said in a televised briefing. At 5am, authorities moved in to rescue those inside.
Inside the Pulse nightclub, billed as “the hottest gay bar in Orlando”, officers found a male suspect dead. He was armed with an assault rifle and a handgun and appeared to be carrying some sort of “device”, a police spokesman said.
Orlando police chief John Mina told a press conference that at least one officer was injured in the gun battle when a bullet fired by the suspect struck the officer’s Kevlar helmet, wounding him in the face. The “heroic” decision to storm the club saved the lives of at least 30 people, he said.
After arriving on the scene in the pre-dawn darkness, police were able to communicate with the gunman inside the club, police chief Mina said, declining to elaborate. He said authorities had no indication that the suspect in the killings received any outside help.
With the investigation in its early stages, authorities were scrutinising a van parked outside the club, which had been rented by the suspect. Details were scarce, but police believe the gunman did not begin shooting until after he was already inside the club.
Many of those caught in the crossfire suffered serious gunshot wounds. “We spent the morning operating on a number of victims,” said Dr Michael Cheatham, a trauma surgeon. “Many are critically ill.”
In the absence of public evidence of a terror link, some people speculated on Twitter that the attack may have been an episode of anti-gay violence. “Disgusting & tragic hate-crime” read one post by a Chicago man.
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