Donald Trump has officially moved to to ban bump stocks, the controversial devices that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like automatic firearms.

Bump stocks were used by gunman Stephen Paddock who killed 58 people at a music festival in Las Vegas in October last year, the worst mass shooting in modern US history.

A senior Justice Department official said bump stocks will be banned from late March next year.

Following the Las Vegas shooting the devices became a focal point in the national gun control debate.

Paddock rained a hail of bullets from his 32nd-floor Las Vegas hotel room, killing 58 people at a concert.

Following the shooting Mr Trump said he would ban the devices.

However, opposition from the National Rifle Association prevented a law being passed by Congress.

Instead, a regulation was signed by Matthew Whitaker, the acting attorney general, on Tuesday.

It will go into effect 90 days after being formally published, which is expected to happen on Friday, the Justice Department official said.

In March, Mr Trump said his administration would "ban" the devices, which he said "turn legal weapons into illegal machines."

Shortly after his comments the justice department announced it had started the process to amend firearms regulations to define bump stocks as machine guns.